Agenda item

The report outlines the engagement and communication that has taken place and is planned, relating to the council’s prototype wheeled bin and food waste collection service in the borough.

The Chair explained that the Committee had received some written questions/ comments from members of the public in advance of the meeting and officers would be invited to answer the questions or make a comment to address the main areas of concerns raised as follows:

1.  A resident commented that there was no food waste collection system in place at Latymer Court.

Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Services) explained that food waste collections from flats required a different approach to those living in street level properties. To ensure effective service delivery, careful consideration needed to be given to the siting of food waste bins and intensive engagement with residents and other key stakeholders was required. These activities were resource intensive and a dedicated project was crucial to achieve successful outcomes. Once the prototype scheme had settled in, the Council would look to make recommendations around expanding the food waste service to other settings.

1.             A resident asked what percentage of residents used their food waste boxes in the pilot of 6000 households? And how quickly it could be rolled out to the rest of the borough?

Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Recovery) noted that the food waste service had been welcomed across the prototype area. The Council was currently collecting an average of 1.6Kgs of food waste per household, which was good performance. Participation in the food waste service across the borough ranged from 45%-85%. The Council thanked residents for their engagement in the service. To ensure these positive results continued, the food waste service needed to be delivered alongside other service changes, like the current prototype area. This method would assist residents to contextualise their waste outputs and increase collection of both food and mixed recycling. In addition, these service changes contributed towards waste minimisation and we had seen weekly waste reduction savings of 6000kg in the prototype area.

The Council was keen to ensure high quality service delivery. To achieve this the number of properties within the service change area must be practicable and properly resourced. Therefore, any service changes need to be managed accordingly, with a gradual launch to achieve borough wide coverage. Once the prototype scheme had settled in, officers would evaluate the service and make recommendations.

3.  A resident asked if there had been an assessment of the carbon footprint of carrying out the food waste scheme to assess how much carbon was saved?

Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Recover) explained that waste and recycling was collected in the same vehicle, which reduced the number of vehicles required and the associated carbon emissions.  

A carbon footprint assessment had not been carried out for the food waste collection; however, this was something officers were looking to do in collaboration with the Climate Emergency Team.  Reducing and minimising waste was one of the best environmental options for reducing carbon emissions. The Council had a commitment for all the waste collection vehicles to be zero carbon by 2030.  

Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Recovery) introduced the report and provided a summary of the key points. He noted that the prototype collection service for food waste and wheeled bin household waste and recycling commenced on 9^th November 2020. It had been scheduled to start in September 2020 but was postponed due to Covid issues. The report sets out how the scheme areas were arrived at, the communications with residents and stakeholders prior to collections commencing, the consultation that had been ongoing throughout the roll out of the service, and the planned consultation that would take place to gauge residents’ experience of the scheme.

Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler explained that she had some concerns regarding delivery, security and the safety aspects of the food and waste collection trial. She felt that had residents in the trial roll out areas been consulted at the outset; then there would have been better buy-in for the scheme. In response Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Services) said that the bins were not congregated in one place and were emptied into the vehicles one by one and put back in an appropriate place outside the homes of residents. In addition, residents were also consulted about the size of the bins for refuse and recycling as the trail was rolled out.

The Council had worked with some residents in the borough to offer a sharing bin solution on the streets where residents had concerns relating to safety and space along the pavements.

Sharon Lea (Strategic Director of Environment) explained that this was a prototype service and itself was a consultation exercise. When the trial was completed a survey would be conducted to capture the views of all residents. In addition, the Council had received a very low level of complaints as a result of the trail.

Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler referring to page 59 of the agenda pack asked for clarification to be provided on if a decision had been made by the Council to implement the food waste pilot collection scheme across the entire borough. In response Richard Shwe   explained that the pilot would usually run between 12-18 months to analyse all the data and receive feedback from residents of the services that had been undertaken before a decision could be made by the Council to extend the scheme across the borough.

The Chair said that it was pleased to hear that the Council had received a low level of complaints for this scheme. She noted that some residents in her ward had not received information regarding the roll out of the food waste collection pilot and asked for further clarification to be provided on how residents across the borough were informed of the pilot, prior to this being implemented. In response Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Recovery) explained that proposals for resident engagement were noted in that report. These included a proposal for extensive door to door engagement with residents. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures put in place nationally from March 2020 officers were unable to engage face to face with residents. As a result, communication prior to the prototype commencing was carried out more remotely, either online or by post. Officers were able to carry out much greater face to face engagement at the delivery phase of the prototype and had approximately 1000 contacts with individual households when it was appropriate and safe to do so.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt (Cabinet Member for the Environment) commented on the reasons why the Council was keen to carry out the food waste collection pilot during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also shared his views on the delivery of the consultation process, the outcome of the pilot to date and the action taken by the Council on communications with residents prior to and after service commencement.

Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler raised some concerns around the shortage and the reduction of deliveries of the clear recycling bags provided to recycle in the regions where the food waste collection pilot had not yet been implemented. She noted the potential impact that this would have on the recycling rates in these locations in comparison to where the scheme had already been introduced.

Action: Richard Shwe to provide a formal response to Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler on this matter.

Councillor Iain Cassidy asked if officers had any information on the impact of the levels of waste collected during the Covid-19 pandemic. In response Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Recover), provided a summary of the recycling data gathered and analysed to date. 

Councillor Iain Cassidy commented that the Council needed to ensure that the communications strategy and consultation process during the final stages of the food waste pilot needed to be robust and effective so that residents’ concerns were being heard and taken into consideration. Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Recovery) outlined the steps that would be taken by officers in collaboration with residents and the relevant departments of the Council to develop a plan to help manage all expectations in the best way possible.

The Chair enquired if any advice relating to best practice had been shared with officers on how the food waste collection pilot could be improved in the future.  In response, Richard Shwe (Assistant Director Street Environment Services) explained that officers had drawn on their experience of managing similar rollouts at other Authorities. He also confirmed that the Council had been diligent and had conducted its own research, as well as drawing on the learning from case studies to improve and enhance the service.  

RESOLVED:

That, the Committee noted and commented on this item.