Decision details

8.1 This item was considered before item 7 Lewisham Cyclists’ Lewisham Borough Cycling Strategy

8.2 Sam Kirk (Strategic Waste & Environment Manager) gave a presentation to the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·         The new garden waste service consist of one brown 240 litre bin per subscription. This service has been promoted by the Council since February. The costs were £45 for a subscription from now until the end of the municipal year and £60 for a full year’s subscription.

·         There were 6,300 subscribers at the time of the meeting. The target for the service was 5,000 for this point in the year. As the bins are delivered and become visible, more people were likely to subscribe. The subscription could be broken down per postcode but not per ward.

·         A quarter of subscribers had opted to pay via PayPal. 52% of subscribers had been signed up to the service via a letter in Lewisham Life.

·         The weekly food waste collections were likely to be rolled out in January 2017. The Christmas period was to be avoided for any changes as many people would be busy enough with waste disposal anyway.

·         The communications strategy to inform people about these changes to their waste collection was split over four phases. The Council had received funding to provide tags for everyone’s bins where this change would be implemented. This would likely happen shortly before the change. It was felt this approach would reach the most people. Officers had also been attending ward assemblies to discuss the changes to waste collections.

8.3 Sam Kirk answered questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·         When people signed up to the garden waste service subscription, the online form explained the difference between the one-off payment of £45 and the £60 payment for a full year.

·         Most London boroughs charge more than £60 for a year’s subscription, except the London Borough of Bexley which introduced fees after providing a free garden waste collection service.

·         Drop off points were provided for people to dispose of their Christmas’ trees across the borough, or people had to the option to cut up their tree and add it to their garden waste.

·         The contamination of waste is costly issue for the Council. 23.39% of waste collected is classed as contaminated, but some of parts of that waste were still useable. The issue to focus on for the Council in terms of costs was the 13.52% of waste that had gone to landfill or energy from waste.

·         The market price for textile waste and small electrical appliances had dropped considerably. This has meant it was difficult to find operators that wanted to add textile banks or small electrical appliance banks to the borough.  

8.4 The Committee made a number of comments. The following key points were noted:

·         Residents had provided positive feedback on the new garden waste service to a number of members of the Committee. Committee members were very pleased with the garden waste collection service.

8.5 RESOLVED: that the presentation be noted, that Committee thanked officers for their work, and that the Committee was delighted with the rollout of the new bins.