Agenda item

Andrew Pau (Head of Waste and Country Parks) shared a presentation of the waste management performance data.

Andrew Pau discussed the provisional performance data, covering quarters 1 to 3 from the current financial year compared to the previous year. Overall tonnage of reuse and recycled waste remained the same with a very slight percentage decline (0.6%). There was an increase in the composting rate of 5.1% which equates to an increase of around 11,000 tonnes compared to the previous year. The increase is most likely due to the fact that the previous year was dry, so green waste was lower than usual and also the extra food waste arising from the new collection service in Stratford and Warwick, which is counted in this category. Landfill and Energy from Waste were both down which is positive in terms of performance. In addition, the overall residual waste declined by 4.5% which indicated that more recycling and composting had taken place. The total household waste increased by 2.8%, however, this was explained by the extra tonnage in the composting category.

Andrew Pau discussed the estimated household waste performance for the year 2023/24 (which includes actual date from quarter 1 to quarter 3, along with quarter 4 data from the previous year), along with the actual data from the previous three years. The performance table includes a breakdown of each Borough and District, the HWRC data and overall totals for Warwickshire. The data for the whole of Warwickshire show an estimated increase in reuse recycling and composting from 48.5% to 52.7% and a steady decrease of total kilograms of residual waste per household to 418 kg for the year 2023/24.

In the final part of the report, Andrew Pau discussed the performance of each Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) for quarters 1 to 3 in 2023/24. Overall, the recycling percentage remained steady, however, this section lacked comparison data for the previous year, and this would be included on the next report. 

Andrew presented benchmarking data for 2022/23, the data compared Warwickshire County Council against 29 other waste disposal authorities. The County ranked 11th in the country for recycling, reuse, and composting rate and ranked 9th in the country for tonnage of residual waste per household. These figures were positive as it represented an improvement year on year.

Andrew Pau shared a table for the benchmarking of waste collection authorities annually. The data was interested and showed some positive movement in terms of positionings. Stratford Upon Avon District Council was fifth best in the Country, with all Boroughs and Districts showing improvement.

Action: The benchmarking tables will be provided with the minutes of the meeting.

Councillor Markham commented on Warwick and Stratford being higher on the list than other Boroughs and Districts and asked if this was because those councils had moved to the 123+ system. In response, those councils confirmed that this was the case and was followed by a discussion between members as to the large jump in placings between 21/22 to 22/23.