Agenda item

This report considers what actions need to be taken during the period from 2007/2008 to 2013/2014 to help meet challenges relating to waste management prior to the Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract becoming operational. It asks Members to consider a range of recommendations and initiatives that have been identified to reduce the risk of the Council incurring fines through the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) by operating within our allowances.

RESOLVED:(i) That it be agreed for £50k to be included in the Council’s budget each year to allow waste minimisation work to continue and subject to the usual value review as part of the annual budget build process;

(ii)That it be agreed for a pilot recycling scheme to be implemented in the Groves area commencing April 2008 at a cost of £160k in a full year, with consultation starting during 2007/2008 and being managed within the existing budget, and a full implementation plan being shared with Members following a full survey of the area;

(iii)That it be agreed for a delivery plan for the pilot area to be presented to the Neighbourhood Services Executive Member & Advisory Panel (EMAP) to inform Members of how this will be implemented and to receive feedback;

(iv)That the full rollout of recycling in terraced areas as from April 2009 be agreed in principle at an annual cost of £241k per annum, subject to the usual value review as part of the budget build process;

(v)That it be agreed for an annual budget of £30k to be included in the Council’s budget each year to help improve participation levels in kerbside recycling, subject to the usual value review as part of the budget build process;

(vi)That the proposed changes to the Commercial Waste section, that will allow the Council to provide recycling to schools and commercial organisations and which will be cost neutral to implement, be agreed;

(vii)That authority be given for the designated LATS trading officer to sell surplus LATS permits in line with the Council’s Waste Strategy;

(viii)That it be agreed to ask officers to provide further reports on the items considered in the Strategy which will contribute to the mitigation of the Council’s LATS targets.

REASON: To assist the Council to meet its LATS targets and to minimise the amount of waste going to landfill.

Members received a report which considered what actions needed to be taken during the period from 2007/2008 to 2013/2014 to help meet challenges relating to waste management prior to the Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract becoming operational. It asked them to consider a range of recommendations and initiatives that had been identified to reduce the risk of the Council incurring fines through the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) by operating within its allowances.

The report presented the following initiatives for consideration:

· Item 1 - To help control waste arising through delivery of an annual waste minimisation plan through to 2013/2014.

· Item 2 - To meet the requirements of the Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 by providing a kerbside recycling service to all households for at least 2 materials. This initiative was linked to moving all 22,800 properties on weekly residual waste collection to an alternate weekly service.

· Item 3 - This was Item 2 plus the collection of kitchen waste from 22,800 households. This item aimed to provide an element of consistency in service provision across the city. The kitchen waste collection could be viewed as an equivalent service to that of green waste which was collected at the majority of other households. This option assumed fortnightly collection but the Council would also need to consider the issue of weekly collection of kitchen waste.

· Item 4 - To collect kitchen waste from 61,440 households that currently received the full alternate weekly collection service. This option assumed fortnightly collection but the Council would also need to consider the issue of weekly collection of kitchen waste.

· Item 5 - Increasing the kerbside recycling participation level and capture rate.

· Item 6 - To develop a commercial waste collection service (including recycling for businesses and schools) that passed full LATS costs back to businesses. This also needed to include commercial waste delivered to Hazel Court household waste recycling centre.

· Item 7 – To identify a waste treatment process to effectively deal with the balance of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) that still needed to be diverted from landfill after implementation of other recycling and composting schemes. Either as part of the York and North Yorkshire County Council partnership or a stand alone solution for York.

· Item 8 - Specific policies for acceptance of waste from non-York residents at household waste recycling centres, limiting the amount of waste taken to household waste recycling centres by residents (permits system), etc.

· Item 9 - To develop a LATS trading strategy to deal with selling and purchasing of permits.

· Item 10 – To review the provision of household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in terms of number and location. It was intended to provide a separate report for the Executive to consider before the end of this calendar year regarding this matter.

Members thanked officers and members of the public for their contribution to the significant progress which had been made during recent years, especially with the roll out of alternate weekly collections.

Officers provided an update on work currently being undertaken to develop school recycling services and explained that the proposals in the report relating to commercial waste would further support this, as schools were included in this classification.

Having considered the advice of the Shadow Executive, it was