Agenda item

Ruth Dixon highlighted the following points:

• The study was carried out in March 2022 and looked at kerbside waste (residual/green)
• The non-recyclable materials in the general waste was approx. 38%
• Ideally kerbside residual waste should be 100% non-recyclable as this is sent to energy recovery or landfill
• 1/6 of this material should have been in the kerbside recycling bin
• More could be done to education the public on what goes in which bin
• 1/3 of all waste in the general waste bin was recyclable food waste that could have gone into the green garden bin or been home composted
• A lot of social media/promotional work has been done on reducing food waste and to not generate avoidable food waste
• The separate weekly food waste collection being implemented in Stratford and Warwick should encourage people to recycle more and produce less food waste as they will see how much they waste
• 1/6 of waste collected kerbside in the general waste bin was HWRC recyclable material 
• Waste collected from the green bins (biowaste) was rarely contaminated; most contamination was soil/turf
• Pet bedding should go in the green bin
• Food waste in the green waste bin increased from 8% in 2018 to 14% in 2022
• There was a similar proportion of food waste in the kerbside bin when compared to the 2018 survey, in addition to the extra food waste in the green bin which implied that people were generating more food waste than they used to. Food price rises could decrease this.

In response to Councillor Tim Sinclair, Ruth Dixon said that the did not have national information on waste composition, but NAWDO (a waste disposal authority national body) does sometimes collect this information from authorities. This had not been done recently because of Covid-19. The strongest county-wide incentive for improving waste recycling was the ‘Slim Your Bin’ programme that asked people to sign up and report on their recycling weekly. As part of the programme residents say what they recycled at the kerbside/at HWRCs, and higher performing individuals could win vouchers. Residents are given weekly prompts to log what they have done. Penalising residents for not recycling was not a permissible alternative.  Andrew Pau added that not every local authority carries out composition analysis and if they did they may have different benchmark criteria, but it is thought that most authorities would have similar composition. 

Dan Green suggested comparing the data from 2022 with the 2018 data and also sharing what it was costing the public so this would influence them to separate it themselves. The climate cost and carbon cost could be shared too. Dan Green noted that when food waste gets collected separately in Stratford and Warwick then the public would need to be re-educated to not put it in the green bin.

Councillor Shenton pointed out that Wales have showed how much money and carbon was saved by recycling instead of disposal.

In response to Dan Green, Ruth Dixon stated that Warwick and Stratford will collect small electrical items separately kerbside as part of their new service. Detailed data on the waste composition will be shared with individual authorities by WCC.

Following Councillor Shenton’s point, Ruth Dixon said that government and Warwickshire’s waste strategies were moving closer to the Wales’ recycling blueprint.