Decision session Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change	5^th October 2022
Report of the Director of Environment, Transport and Planning

Waste Update

Summary

1. Waste Services are responsible for the collection of household waste and commercial waste across the city this report provides . There are a number of developments that we wish to draw to your attention to and provide an update on the service in general.  

2. The report also details seeks decsionsdecisions other service changes being considered to change the service such as an expanded range of materials which can be collected in the recycling streams and some changes to bring bank provision.

Recommendations

1. The Executive Member for Environment is recommended to:

3.

i. Approve the change to the list of materials that are collected to include foil and other plastics as soon as possible.

Reason: To ensure that materials that are currently recycled continue to be and increase recycling within the city

i. To note the change of operations to Bring Banks including the proposed removal of some locations

Reason: To improve the customer experience and make them more attractive to users

Background

1. In June 2021 the Executive agreed to:.

4.

· Extra Garden Waste Collections

Extend the garden waste season by one month to run each year from beginning of March to end of November starting in March 2022.

· New Refuse Collection Vehicles

Purchase a recycling fleet of twin bodied vehicles for recycling.

· Easier Recycling

The separating equipment available at Harewood Whin meant residents could now present glass, cans and plastics in the same box and only paper and card kept separated.

· Routing and Rounding Efficiency

To commence a routing and rounding exercise to ensure the collections are as efficient as possible and bring a report back to the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change.

· Bags to Bins

To review the next phase of the bags to bins policy (wheeled bins rather than black bags) and bring this to future decision sessions of the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change and review if these properties could receive a green waste collection.

5. This report provides an update on the above and seeks decisions about implementation of some of additional items that the service have been working on. The report also updates on progress of some of the items listed above.

Completed Items

6. The 2 extra garden waste collections for every property started in March 2022. The garden waste service commenced on Monday 7^th March 2022 and this resulted in a more phased service introduction where garden waste tonnages gradually increased over the first two rounds of collection as opposed to a ‘big bang’ that used to happen at the start of April. In March 2022, all garden waste collections were completed on schedule. It should be noted that the presentation of bins was high but that tonnages were not excessive. This resulted in a smoother introduction into the service when compared with previous years when collection started in April. 

7. Over the past couple of years the service has benefited from significant investment and undergone a vehicle replacement programme. This has seen the introduction of two electric waste vehicles into the service which primarily work on our commercial waste rounds which primarily work in the cities clean air zone. The service has also deployed, over the past 15 months, fourteen new 26 tonne narrow chassis vehicles and eight new 26 tonne split compartment vehicles for recycling which are used on our domestic waste rounds.

8. The service continues to assess the operational performance of the electric vehicles and at this stage we are not recommending any further purchases of electric waste vehicles. In addition, the remaining vehicles we need to consider replacements for are our hard to access fleet and there are currently no options for electric vehicles of this size on the market.

9. The separating equipment now available at Harewood Whin means that residents can now present glass, cans and plastics in the same box and only paper and card kept separated. This information has been communicated to residents and the Council’s website and social media has been updated to reflect this development.

1. Additional Recycling Proposed Service Changes

10. In addition to the principles agreed by Executive the opportunity has arisen to collect additional materials from the doorstep. a number of other service improvements have been developed for consideration by the Executive.

Additional Recycled Materials

11. The city has benefited from a charity collecting foil collections by the charity Snappy, however this is coming to an end.

12. The service has been working with Yorwaste its recycling partners to try to increase the amount of the materials accepted at the kerbside (e.g. foil, certain additional types of plastics such as yoghurt potsetc). This will hopefully maximise the amount of material that is recycled and ensure that the high quality of recycling delivered by York’s residents is maintained.

13. It is proposed that messages on this are communicated with residents through Our City and developments of the Council’s website. This will ensure that residents are aware of the expanded range of items that can be presented and accepted in kerbside recycling boxes. In conjunction with this, communications and literature will also be delivered to the operational Waste Service so collections crews are briefed on the revised items that can be accepted.  

Bring Banks

1. The Council provides a number of bring banks across the city for residents to dispose of additional materials that they may wish to recycle. These are provided at 28 locations across the city (plus 5 paper only sites) but the major bring sites are in supermarket car parks (e.g. Tesco, Tadcaster Road Morrison’s Acomb, Asda, Monks Cross) and park and ride facilities (Rawcliffe).

1. Officers have made an operational decision to change the subcontracting arrangements with Yorwaste, in particular in respect of glass collections. The reason for this is to improve the collections and reduce the likelihood of them overflowing. Part of this trial is an arrangement with bin sensors on glass banks at certain locations so that they can be emptied just before they reach capacity.

1. The Council provides a kerbside recycling collection service to all households across the city. Whilst it is important to provide additional facilities for residents to recycle materials, a number of these bring sites could be removed to reduce operating costs and reduce the possible use of these bins by non-residents.

1. Residents already have access to dispose of these materials through kerbside recycling collections so there should be no ‘loss of service’. Therefore, it is proposed that local bring sites at the following locations are removed:-

· Derwent Arms, Osbladwick, YO10 3NP (mixed glass)

· Hartrigg Oaks, New Earswick YO32 4DS (DMR - cans and plastics, mixed glass, paper/card)

· Maxi’s restaurant (car park), YO26 6RA (Mixed glass)

· Mount Royale Hotel, Mickelgate, YO24 1GU (Mixed glass)

· Naburn Lock caravan park, YO19 4RU (DMR - cans and plastics, mixed glass)

· Poppleton Garden Centre, YO26 6QP (Mixed glass, paper/card)

· Rawcliffe caravan park/Lysander Arms, YO30 5XX (DMR - cans and plastics, mixed glass, paper/card)

· Red Lion car park, Knapton, YO26 6QG (Mixed glass)

· Red Lion, Upper Poppleton, YO26 6PR (Mixed glass)

· Broadway shops, Fulford, YO10, 4JX (Paper/card)

· Cambridge Street, Holgate Road, YO24 4AY (Paper/card)

· Co-op, Hull Road, YO10 3LQ (Paper/card)

· Quakerwood car park, Acomb Wood Drive, YO24 3XN (Paper/card)

· East parade car park, Heworth, YO31 7YB (Paper/card)

Please note that full list of sites with the facilities provided at each site and the proposed actions are included in Appendix 1.   

Updates on Ongoing Projects

14. Work is continuing on a routing and rounding exercise to ensure the waste collection service is as efficient as possible. Work is also being undertaken on the next phase of the bags to bins policy (wheeled bins rather than black bags) and the review to judge if these properties could receive a green waste collection. A review of bring sites is also underway. It is proposed that a separate report will be brought back in the future to the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change.

15. The service plan to undertake a review of its commercial waste operation. The review will need to focus on the current profitability of the service and asses the opportunities presented as part of the Government’s Waste and Resources Strategy. Part of this work will need to focus on how access can be minimised or removed altogether and protecting the visual amenity of the city centre of waste presented for collection when 9 to 5 businesses close (e.g. bags left out overnight etc). It is proposed that a separate report will be brought back in the future to the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change.

Council Plan

16.  The decisions made here contribute towards the objectives of the Council Plan

· Well-paid jobs and an inclusive economy

· A greener and cleaner city

· Creating homes and world class infrastructure

Implications

17. Financial

The changes to the list of materials collected will have minimal financial impact. There may be a positive effect on income received from sale of recyclate. There are one-off costs of £45k relating to the implementation of the operational changes to the routing and rounds and to the bring bank service which will be met from within existing waste budgets.

18. Human Resources (HR) Legal

As a unitary authority the Council is obliged by law to provide domestic waste collections to households and is responsible for its disposal this is laid out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Current EU and UK laws are driving local authorities to meet higher recycling and composting targets.

Any potential changes to current contracts for service will need to be dealt with in accordance with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. n/a.

19. Equalities

The Council recognises its Public Sector Equality Duty under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other prohibited conduct; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it in the exercise of a public authority’s functions

The impact of the proposals on protected characteristics has been considered as follows:    

· Age – Neutral;

· Disability – Neutral;

· Gender – Neutral;

· Gender reassignment – Neutral;

· Marriage and civil partnership– Neutral;

· Pregnancy and maternity – Neutral;

· Race – Neutral;

· Religion and belief – Neutral;

· Sexual orientation – Neutral;

· Other socio-economic groups including :

o Carer - Neutral (see Disability);

o Low income groups – Neutral;

o Veterans, Armed Forces Community– Neutral.

Risk Management

20. The key risk is ensuring any changes are clearly communicated to the public and therefore detailed communications will be prepared and agreed.

Contact Details

Author:	Chief Officer Responsible for the report:
Ben Grabham Head of Environmental Services Ben.Grabham@york.gov.uk Specialist Officers Finance TBCPatrick Looker Legal TBCFrances Harrison Wards	James Gilchrist Director of Transport, Planning and Environment
	Report Approved	üX	Date	27/9/2022
Affected:  All wards					All	üX
For further information please contact the author of the report

Background Papers:

Appendix 1 – Bring Sites

Abbreviations:

TBC

Annexes:

TBC