Minutes:
Ruth Dixon presented a PowerPoint and highlighted the following points:
· In 2018 local authorities (LAs) were told by central government that there would be a new resources and waste strategy.
· National consultations were held in 2019 and 2021. The WWP responded to these consultations.
· The new strategy aims to waste less and recycle more while promoting a circular economy.
· There are three planned pillars for the new strategy: extended producer responsibility (EPR), deposit return scheme (DRS) and collection consistency.
· EPR – companies must pay LA to dispose of waste created from their product’s packaging. This includes all kerbside collections, HWRC streams and binned litter but not ground litter.
· Any company with a turnover of £2 million or more handling 50 tonnes of packaging or more is obligated to pay into the scheme.
· DEFRA were working with local authorities and brand owners to get this scheme started and make a first payment to LAs in 2024/5.
· DEFRA stated that Chief Executives of all LAs will be asked to nominate a senior waste officer and senior finance officer in the near future.
· The EPR scheme should reduce unnecessary packaging and make more packaging materials readily recyclable.
· LAs will get the full amount of money to dispose of the waste. The amount given could either be accepted or appealed if the LA believe it does not cover the collection and disposal costs.
· The amount of money that the LA gets also depends on how good their collection and disposal service is. However, money could be given to improve this service.
· DRS – householders will be able to return plastic drinks bottles and metal drinks cans sized between 50ml-3l. It is unknown how much the deposit will be per item but would likely be 20p.
· Each bottle or can in a multipack will also be part of the DRS.
· The DRS is planned to start in October 2025.
· People would either be able to return their bottles/cans to a reverse vending machine in a supermarket or take back to a smaller retailer where they would scan the barcode of the product then recycle the container.
· Scotland were going to introduce DRS first, but this has been postponed. Biffa were contracted to carry out the logistics.
· The scheme would be good for the environment, reducing litter of this type and may encourage people to use refillable containers instead.
· Tetrapak, most plastic milk bottles and glass will not be part of the DRS in England.
· DRS will start after the EPR scheme is implemented.
· Waste collection authorities may be able to claim the deposit of DRS applicable items collected at the kerbside.
· When the DRS scheme is live in Warwickshire, Sherbourne may be able to separate DRS items to enable the deposits to be reclaimed.
· Consistency in collections – this is the most unknown pillar of the new strategy. There will be a mandatory set of dry recyclables, this will include Tetrapak from 2024 and plastic film from 2026, which will be dealt with at Sherbourne when it opens.
· It is believed that food waste will have to be collected weekly and separately by 2025.
· There may be guidance on garden waste and residual waste collection.
· There will be a DEFRA run forum on the 6th July for the new strategy which members and officers could invite themselves to.
Ruth Dixon agreed with Councillor Bell that the EPR would likely cause prices of goods to increase slightly but this would not be as noticeable as the deposit on drinks containers.
In response to Councillor Baxter-Payne, Ruth Dixon stated that there would be a shift by companies to minimise packaging so they would not have to pay as much.
In response to Councillor Bell, Ruth Dixon clarified that glass would not be part of the DRS because of pressure from the glass industry themselves. They said it would be too noisy with glass bottles going into the reverse vending machines and issues with broken glass. They glass industry did not want their products’ prices to increase despite being so easily recyclable. No milk containers will be part of the DRS either because the HDPE plastic containers were not included, only PET plastic bottles like pop and water bottles.
Andrew Pau noted that Scotland and Wales plan to include glass as part of their DRS and England and NI do not.