Agenda item

The report sets out the progress made in our waste and recycling services through the on-going roll-out of food waste recycling, introduction of wheeled bins and garden waste recycling and other service developments. 

Annie Baker, Assistant Director, Street Environmental Services provided a presentation on the progress made in Hammersmith and Fulham’s waste and recycling services through the on-going roll-out of food waste recycling, the introduction of wheeled bins and garden waste recycling and other service developments.

The following points were highlighted:

• The context of where Hammersmith and Fulham stood for waste minimisation and recycling in comparison to other London Boroughs.
• The benefits of a wheeled bin and food collection service.
• Details of the service roll out, the community engagement work which had been conducted and flexibility of the service.
• A sample of the feedback the service had received from residents.
• Details on the garden waste recycling service.
• Details on the food waste recycling service, including its uptake by residents.
• Performance metrics – Noting household recycling rate was up 5 percentage points, due to increased food and dry mixed recycling.
• Details on the social value implications of the service and how this had benefited communities.

Councillor Amanda Lloyd-Harris welcomed the proposal about small electrical goods as outlined in the report. She explained there was an issue with a number of bins not being returned on to the property which highlighted (to potential burglars) that the householder was absent. She asked if this issue could be passed to the collection teams as a security concern. In addition, she asked about the cost of the garden waste collection service, as in her view, this was an additional service charge for a pre-existing service within a Council Tax bill. She asked how she should reply to residents about the additional charge for a service that was already included in their Council Tax.

In relation to the bins, Annie Baker, Assistant Director Street Environmental Services asked Councillors to report any instances of bin misplacement so this could be communicated to the crews. The best place for bins was as close to a householders’ gate as possible within the boundary of the property. However, all bins should be returned to where they were presented.

With regards to the garden waste collection service, Annie Baker confirmed that the service was a new service for recycling the garden waste, whereas previously it was collected as refuse. As a next step she explained officers would be looking at instances where garden waste was combined with refuse to ensure this was managed. Councillor Amanda Lloyd-Harris confirmed that her garden waste was still being collected as part of her refuse collection, although she was still paying for the optional garden waste collection service. She felt refuse and garden waste collection services were not consistent. Annie Baker confirmed that this needed to be looked at to ensure garden waste was not collected as general refuse. She acknowledged that behavioural change took time, but garden waste recycling collection was for subscribers only.

Bram Kainth, Executive Director – Place commented that previously all waste was being presented in black bags. The Council was actively taking steps to improve its recycling and minimise its waste disposal / waste disposal costs and so the appropriate food waste and garden waste service collections should be used by residents.

Councillor Ashtok Patel welcomed the news that Hammersmith and Fulham was the best performing inner London Borough for dry waste recycling. However, he reiterated the issue of bins not being returned to where they were stored as a growing problem. He also raised the issue of social value and the £1.7 million cited in the report. And asked how this was calculated. In response, Annie Baker provided a detailed explanation of how this worked and offered to provide further figures on this outside the meeting.

The Chair asked if the wages of those persons the Council employed were also added to the Social Value calculation. In response, Annie Baker confirmed that this did not equate to wages, but there was a value assigned to employing a local person under the Social Value element of the contract. In terms of the return of bins, Annie Baker confirmed that the Council did not solely rely on the contractor and officers did go out and monitor collections. She reiterated her request that those instances of bins not being returned to their collection point should be reported to the Department.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang commented that the Waste Service was a good news story, and many residents had provided him with positive feedback about how the Council had been engaging with the community. He noted that only half of Councils provided a food waste recycling service and so the Council’s achievements should be celebrated. He asked how much longer the Veolia contract would last. In response, Annie Baker confirmed that food waste recycling services should be provided to all residents by March 2026 and she also provided details on how food waste collection services would operate in communal areas for both flats and housing estates. She also highlighted that when residents started to separate their food waste from their general waste, then food waste levels tended to decrease as shopping habits changed.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang commented that the food waste collection service was saving both the Council and residents money but was also an environmentally sound initiative. He asked about the food waste recycling rollout, the communications undertaken and the learnings so far. In response, Annie Baker confirmed that officers had incorporate the learning from the street-based rollout and would then build on this by providing bespoke information related to where they lived.

In relation to the food waste recycling, the Chair explained he had noticed that not all residents where he lived had adopted the service and so asked how the Council was encouraging residents to do more of this. He also highlighted the issue of pests; food waste being scattered on pavements and what actions could be taken to reduce this.

Annie Baker provided details of how the food caddies were designed to minimise spillage, however these were knocked over occasionally. Overall, it was noted that cleaning issues have reduced since the caddies had been introduced as less food waste is presented in black sacks. However, if residents were experiencing persistent problems with pests, they were encouraged to contact the Waste Services Team.

The Chair asked what strategies were in place to make more residents use the caddies and what the uptake levels were. In response, Annie Baker confirmed that the tonnage was building month on month and officers would be looking at new ways to engage with people and also remind them the service was well established on their street. Behavioural change meant that as residents saw what their neighbours were doing, then uptake would improve. Further ideas included the use of stickers on refuse bins explaining not to put food waste in them and also working with residents’ groups and schools / school children to highlight the service and environmental improvements recycling brought.

The Chair reiterated the point about bins being returned to their collection point and proposed that this might be happening as residents had moved the bins onto the pavement to assist the collection teams. Annie Baker confirmed that where repeated instances of this were reported, the council would write to residents to ask them to locate their bins slightly differently.

With regards to soft plastic recycling target of 2027, the Chair asked if anything could be done to bring this forward. In response, Annie Baker confirmed the soft plastics category was a wide range of different materials and so recycling sites would need to extract this range of materials from the mix and then use a re-processor who could take the mixed plastic wrap and turn this into a product. The Council’s role was to collect the recycling and separate this, but then to pass in onto the industry where it would be recycled. At the moment, there were outlets for some types of plastic wraps but not all (as the industry was still being developed). The hope was that in future; producers might choose to streamline the different types of plastic wraps that were currently available.

The Chair commented he was pleased the garden waste service was starting to be successful and the social value which had been created was extremely encouraging. It was also good that overall recycling rates had improved and overall waste levels per head of population had also decreased.

At the invitation of the Chair, Mr MacDonald-Brown, local resident addressed the committee and confirmed he was a garden waste collection subscriber. He felt that people with gardens should pay for the service. However, he thought the £90 cost per annum was too high and if this was reduced then there might be more subscribers. In relation to the recycling of soft plastics, he commented if Tesco’s could provide it, why couldn’t the Council. And in his view, if soft plastics recycling was implemented successfully then weekly refuse collections might no longer be necessary.

In relation to the garden waste collection service Councillor Chevoppe-Verdier commented that this was a user pays model, which at £1.70 per week was not overly expensive. The Council was trying to roll out the scheme to more and more people and at some point in the future the charge might be reduced. With regards to the availability of soft plastics recycling, the Council used Western Riverside Waste Authority which was shared with several other boroughs and the key issue here was space, and the capacity of a shared recycling provider to provide this service to several boroughs concurrently.

Concluding the item, the Chair thanked the officers for all their work, noting that recycling rates had increased and there was scope to improve them further (through communal collections, schools and other venues). He encouraged more recycling, especially for food waste. The Committee welcomed that residents were subscribing to the garden waste collection service and in terms of soft plastics the Committee encouraged the introduction of this as soon as possible. And on operational points, he asked that officers check where residents were asked to present their bins from the outset and he encouraged Councillors to report instances where bins where being left on the pavement outside individual properties.

RESOLVED

That the committee note the report and the contents of the accompanying presentation.