BOROUGH OF POOLE
ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
8 SEPTEMBER 2011
COUNCIL
27 SEPTEMBER 2011
FUTURE OF GARDEN WASTE COLLECTION SCHEME
REPORT OF THE HEAD OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSUMER PROTECTION SERVICES
PART OF THE PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN YES
STATUS (Strategic)
1. PURPOSE
1.1 To meet the expectation of a £324k net expenditure reduction included within the Medium Term Financial Plan 2011- 2014, which was approved by Council on 1st March 2011.
1.2 To enable the Borough to divert garden waste away from landfill.
1.3 To consider the Outline Business Case for the introduction of a chargeable garden waste collection service that meets residents demands and is available to all properties.
1.4 To report on the Future of the Garden Waste Consultation.
2. DECISION(S) REQUIRED
2.1 That Members recommend to Council the introduction of a chargeable garden waste collection service operating for nine months per year.
2.2 That Members recommend to Council a revision to the existing Black Bin Waste Policy to exclude garden waste from black bins across the whole Borough.
3. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.1. The Borough currently provides a Non Chargeable Garden Waste Collection Service to 22,000 properties using 240 litre bins with fortnightly collection. The Scheme operates from April to October and is delivered by double shifting refuse vehicles with staff working from 15:00 to 23:00.
3.2. This means that demand from properties currently without a green bin cannot be met. There is no funding available to pay for new bins or operational collection costs to deliver an extended scheme.
3.3. The Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) approved by Council on March 1st 2011 included an expectation of £540k arising from the introduction of a chargeable garden waste collection service. This figure has been revised since the last Committee Meeting to £324k.
3.4. In June 2011 the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee instructed that a six week public consultation exercise be carried out for the introduction of a chargeable garden waste scheme and subsequent exclusion of garden waste in the black refuse bin throughout the Borough. The implementation of the proposed Scheme being subject to agreement ‘in principle’ pending a further report to Committee on 8th September 2011.
3.5. Members instructed Officers to consider additional options and cost them accordingly. These are Options 8 – 10 and are shown in the table in 5 below.
4. CONSULTATION OUTCOMES
4.1 The Consultation on the future of the Garden Waste Scheme ran from Monday 20th June to Friday 29th July 2011. The Consultation was carried out via a number of methods:
· Petition
· Two press releases
· Four radio interviews
· Consultation on boroughofpoole.com
· Poole Opinion Panel
· Leaflets (15,000)
o Dropped door to door by Elected Members
o Dropped door to door by the Summer Promotions Team out ‘doorstepping’
o At the Household Waste Recycling Centre
o At Libraries
o Roadshow events throughout the Borough
4.2 The full Consultation Results and Analysis are included in the Appendix 1.
4.3 4106 responses were received. The key findings were (Consultation 1st Poole Opinion Panel 2nd ):
a) 85% and 88% of people want a choice about how to dispose of garden waste
b) 95% and 91% want the Borough to offer a kerbside green waste collection service
c) 92% and 88% agree that residents should have equal access to a kerbside garden waste collection service.
d) 54% and 45% of respondents already have a green bin.
e) 76% support extending the service into March and November
f) 39% and 37% agree with the annual charge of £31with 61% and 63% disagreeing.
4.4 A Petition was presented to Council on Monday 18th July 2011 by Councillor Brooke on behalf of residents and was referred to the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee for its consideration. The respondents to the Petition submitted their signature on the following form.
4.5 332 responses were received from households. It requested that the slip be returned on May 5th 2011 at the Polling Station. This Petition pre dated the initial Business Case (June 2011) and was prior to any information being released regarding the cost of the Scheme or any other details.
5. OPTIONS
5.1 In June 2011, seven options were outlined and costed. Following the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting in June 2011 a further three options were added. The ten options are outlined in the table below. The recommended option entails ceasing the Free Garden Waste Collection Service and introducing an opt-in chargeable garden waste collection service available to all properties within the Borough.
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Table of Options
Pros / ConsOption 1 / Do nothing - continue the current scheme (April – October) / - Scheme remains in place
- 95% participation rate
- Approximately 17,000 users
- Diverting 4304 tonnes from landfill annually / - Only 1/3 of Borough receives the scheme
- Funding is not available to extend it further
- April start – too late?
- October finish – too early?
Option 2 / Stop the free garden waste scheme entirely to all 22,000 households / - This will cost the Borough money, as waste currently diverted to composting through the green bin will be sent to landfill at nearly three times the price
- This option reduces residents choice
Green Bin Scheme Users
- Resident dissatisfaction at scheme finishing
Non Green Bin Scheme Users
- Want green bin, scheme has now been removed with no opportunity for it to return (in foreseeable future)
Option 3 / Stop the free garden waste scheme entirely to all 22,000 households, roll out no garden waste in black bin across whole Borough / - By banning garden waste from the black bin, savings in disposal costs can be realised depending on how well the ban is embraced without the provision of alternatives. / What alternatives are available?
- Nuffield site (temporary until December 2012)
- Use of bring sites
- Further promotion of home composting
- This option reduces residents choice
Green bin scheme users
- Resident dissatisfaction at scheme finishing
Non green bin scheme users
- Want green bin, scheme has now been removed with no opportunity for it to return (in foreseeable future)
Option 4 / Continue the current scheme, (April – October)
No garden waste in black bin rolled out across whole Borough to those both on and off the scheme / - Scheme remains in place
- 95% participation rate
- Approximately 17,000 users
- Diverting 4304 tonnes from landfill annually with the potential of an additional 4000 tonnes from banning green waste in the black bins / - Enhances the inequality of the system in place, only 1/3 of Borough receive the scheme, they are able to divert their green waste into a kerbside collection provided by the Borough
- Non garden waste properties have to make alternative arrangements
Option 5 / Extend the current free scheme to an additional 11,000 properties.
No garden waste in black bin rolled out across whole Borough to those both on and off the scheme / - Scheme remains in place
- 11,000 new properties will have access to the scheme
- Further diversion of garden waste from landfill which will impact on our recycling rate
- Further diversion of waste as a result of banning green waste in the black bins / - Scheme is still not available to all properties in the borough
- Significant cost of £372k to implement
- In addition the gap in the MTFP of £324k would not be completely closed. The contribution would heavily depend on the diversion achieved.
Option 6
The preferred option / Offer a chargeable scheme for 9 months (March – November)
No garden waste in black bin rolled out across whole Borough to those both on and off the scheme / - Enhances choice to all residents with all existing options still available
- Residents will only pay for a scheme if they want it
- Fair inclusive scheme available to all
- More than one bin is available (at a price)
- Extended collection period
- An additional month at start and end of current scheme
- Flats can benefit from the scheme
- Neighbours can bin share if they wish and this will be promoted as an option / - Some residents may not be able to afford scheme
- Logistical challenges associated with moving from a free to a paid scheme
Option 7 / Offer a chargeable scheme for 12 months
No garden waste in black bin rolled out across whole Borough to those both on and off the scheme / - Residents will only pay for a scheme if they want it
- Fair inclusive scheme available to all
- More than one bin is available (at a price)
- Year round service (break for Christmas and New Year)
- Flats can benefit from the scheme
- Neighbours can bin share if they wish and this will be promoted as an option / - Some residents may not be able to afford scheme
- Severe weather conditions may impact on a year round scheme resulting in non collections or reduced yields. Terms & conditions would need to be in place
- Demand for the service is substantially less during Dec-Feb due to winter weather. The HWRC is still available to those who want it.
Option 8 / Retain 22,000 green bins and meet the requirements of the MTFP by introducing a compulsory bin swap of all existing 240 litre black / 140 litre blue to 140 litre black / 240 litre blue / - Diversion of recyclable materials into the 240 litre blue bin previously placed in the black bin (possibly) due to capacity issues
- Re-enforces waste minimisation message due to reduction in size of the black bin / - Will cost £1,097,582.50 to implement for a potential return of £41,879.57p.a. The payback period would be 26 years.
Option 9 / To consider the option of moving to blue lids and black lids on “wrong” base colour bins / - The Council would not need to purchase new bins when just the lids could be swapped. This would result in savings in bin purchasing / - BoP has taken advantage of purchasing consortiums and bought the cheapest available bins at the time of need. This has resulted in different makes in use within the Borough, albeit has saved money at the time. e.g Sulo, OTTO, Manvik.
- For a number of years OTTO bins were purchased, however designs are constantly evolving and even the same manufacturer has different shaped lids in different years. Therefore this option is not capable of being delivered.
Option 10 / To cost option of selling bin in first year and relying on diversion benefit in future years / - Residents would benefit from a ‘one off’ cost to purchase the bin
- There may be a greater take up than providing an annual chargeable service. Residents may be more inclined to purchase a bin even if they only anticipate putting the bin out for collection once a month or less / - The diversion saving will not achieve figure of £324K. Council will still have a budget deficit.
- After year 1, Option 10 fails to meet the MTFP and in subsequent years creates a further escalating financial, disposal and collection pressure. It assumes that the gap in the MTFP does not escalate year on year.
(See Financial Implications Business Case page 19)
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6. WHAT IS THE PROPOSAL?
6.1 The Scheme would offer subscribers the benefit of a fortnightly collection of garden waste from March until November utilising a 240 litre wheeled bin.
6.2 A payment system needs to be in place that is easy for residents to use, works with our route planning software and aids reporting. ICT are confident that the service will be enabled using existing ICT infrastructure and software solutions.
6.3 It is also essential that a policy excluding garden waste from the residual waste stream (black bin) be adopted Borough wide at the same time. This policy would be implemented by education and persuasion. The policy would be necessary to prevent garden waste simply being diverted to landfill via the free black bin collection. It is important to note that one cannot be achieved without the other. If a chargeable scheme is implemented, there must be a no garden waste in the black bin policy. This policy change would have the added benefit of increasing the Borough’s Recycling rate.
6.4 It is proposed that the Chargeable Scheme will start in March 2012 and run until November 2012.
6.5 It is proposed that the Annual Charge for the Scheme be £31 per year per 240 litre bin. Residents can share a bin or choose to buy more than one bin.
7. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1 Option 6 is the preferred option. All options have been evaluated and are included in the Business Plan (this can be found on page 57).
8. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
8.1 The separate collection of garden waste is a discretionary service under the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 (unaffected by the draft changes expected in 2011). The Council can charge for collection, but not disposal.
8.2 The Coalition Agreement in June 2010, confirmed in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Business Plan published in November 2010, states that the previous Governments Waste Policy for England 2007 (the goals of which formed the basis of the Borough of Poole’s Waste Strategy 2008-2018) would be revised by a new policy. This was published in June 2011. The Policy Agenda has focused on setting a path to a ‘zero waste’ economy, a philosophy that advocates all products are reused therefore minimising waste sent to landfill. In addition, the promotion of a ‘huge’ increase in energy from waste, through anaerobic digestion and incentivisation to recycle.
8.3 The New Waste Policy will include the transposition of the revised European Waste Framework Directive, which includes a statutory re-use/recycling target for household waste of 50% by 2020. The Council achieved 40.9% in 2009/10 and currently has no investment strategy to introduce additional recycling facilities.