Agenda item

Councillor Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management) introduced Councillor Terry Hone (Hertfordshire County Council Executive Member responsible for Waste), District Councillor Carol Stanier (deputy Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management) and Jamie Sells (Service Manager – Waste Management).

She gave a PowerPoint presentation regarding the Recycling and Waste Management Service.

The Chairman thanked Councillor Dennis-Harburg for her presentation.

Audio recording – 3 minutes 1 second

Councillor Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management) introduced Councillor Terry Hone (Hertfordshire County Council Executive Member responsible for Waste), District Councillor Carol Stanier (deputy Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management) and Jamie Sells (Service Manager – Waste Management).

She gave a PowerPoint presentation regarding the Recycling and Waste Management Service including:

·                This presentation would inform on what the Council could and could not do in terms of recycling and waste management and consider whether there were ways to improve things;

·                NHDC was a Collection Authority which meant they were responsible for the collection of waste from residents;

·                The Council could undertake other waste collections, such as industrial waste, with the consent of the County Council as the Waste Disposal Authority;

·                The controlled waste was collected by NHDC and then delivered to a place specified by the County Council and this could include landfill and energy to waste plants;

·                NHDC has to comply with any direction from County Council regarding the separation of waste;

·                NHDC did have the power to decide the construction size etc of the bins used;

·                Hertfordshire County Council provided places for residents to deposit waste free of charge;

·                The North and East Herts area covered more than half of the geographic rea of Hertfordshire;

·                The different sizes of the various authorities meant that is could be difficult to harmonise waste collection across the County;

·                NHDC had, for several years been one of the County’s highest performing districts in respect of diverting recyclable material from landfill;

·                In 2018/19 NHDC was in the top ten percent of authorities Nationwide for recycling performance, although this was slightly below the EU target of 60 percent;

·                NHDC would continue to try to improve performance;

·                Details of the output from waste collection such as composting and recycling were given;

·                Other items were collected kerbside including textiles and batteries;

·                The process for processing waste was described;

·                NHDC’s carbon footprint was high due to the size of the district and the place to which we have to transport waste collected;

·                NHDC was in the top three of the Waste Partnership for recycling;

·                Residents, officers and operatives should be praised for maintaining the level of recycling despite the issues experienced with the new waste contract last year;

·                In first half of 2019/20 38 percent of waste was being recycled;

·                She summarised the ideal situation regarding the disposal of waste and the redesign of products to reduce residual waste at the production stage;

·                NHDC would be running more WEEE events;

·                The Government had consulted on a Resource and Waste Paper and the Herts Waste Partnership would be considering this together with ways in which local authorities could improve processing of waste recycling;

·                The Government were considering further statutory measures on this subject;

·                There were best practices from other authorities that should be considered;

·                NHDC needs to make use of communications to educate residents on other actions they could take regarding their own waste.

The Chairman invited questions from members of the public and in response:

County Councillor Hone advised that North Herts was at the lower half of residual waste collected and this was reducing. The collection of waste varied depending on the local circumstances for instance collection from flats had an impact on amounts collected.

Councillor Dennis-Harburg advised that data would be posted on the Council’s website.

The following Members asked made comments and questions:

·                Councillor Claire Strong;

·                Councillor Gerald Morris;

·                Councillor Val Bryant.

Councillor Dennis-Harburg responded that trending data regarding residual waste tonnage would be placed on the NHDC website.

The Service Manager – Waste advised;

·                That paper should not be out in the co-mingled waste and if this happened they would discuss this with Urbaser;

·                Provision of a separate food waste caddy did encourage food waste collection;

·                That approximately 60 percent of low-rise properties had brown bins.

Comments from Members included:

·                That food bins, when first introduced reduced the amount of food tht was put in residual waste;

·                That supermarkets should be encouraged to reduce the amount of and chnge the type of packaging on food for sale.

The Chairman thanked Councillor Dennis-Harburg for her presentation.