Agenda item

6.1    Cllr Onikosi played the animated film which outlines the reasons why we are consulting together with an overview of the various cost saving options that are being considered. She then invited questions.

Please note these are not verbatim minutes so questions and answers are summarised.

Q:  What size would the foods waste bins be?

A:  Most authorities use 22 litre bins, which is quite small.

Q:  I have somewhere for extra bins but what happens if people do not have the space?

A:  There would be special arrangements for people who do not have room for extra one.

Q:  How will it work to have the food bins in flats?

A:  The current consultation is regarding street properties only, we will need to consult separately for flat for flats.

Q: I live in a house and my neighbour often uses my bin as his fills up before the end of the week, so I am concerned about fortnightly collections.

A:  There is a hierarchy of waste management and encouraging people to reduce their consumption is at the top of this. It may need us to engage some residents in education on waste reduction.

Q:  This could be quite confusing, would we get a list of what is being collected when?

A:  If we decide to change to fortnightly collections, we would produce information for residents affected by the change.

Q: Are you looking to other borough to see what is working well there?

A:  Yes we have look at what is working across other boroughs such as Bromley, Croydon, Hackney and others. The current consultation is based on effective practice that we identified.

Q:  When are the fortnightly collection likely to start and can we request extra bins if we currently share with our neighbours?

A:  This is a consultation so we will not make any decisions until we have seen what people say. Any change would then be rolled out across the borough and we would provide extra bin for people who share if they need them.

Q:  I am concerned about capacity as I share my recycle bin and it is already full most weeks. Do you not then run the risk of people using their black bin for recyclable materials which then mean you do not see an increase in the % recycled?

A:  You are not the first person to have said this and we can decide to keep a weekly collection for recycling if that is what people tell us is needed.

Q:  Why are you prosing a subscription for garden waste which you might not use for several months of the year, the bags are good because you buy the roll and use them when you need them.

A: There are some issues with the current system, people have said that the process of acquiring bags is not easy and the contractor has often run out of bags resulting in delays in delivery.

A fact sheet is attached for further information.

The Council is looking at how we might change the way we collect waste and recycling from houses and flats in houses (all households that typically have collections from a wheelie bin). As you saw in the film we have a number of options.

Changes like this could mean more bins and boxes for residents to use and changes to the frequency of some collections.

Most options will keep the existing bins. These will just be collected on alternate weeks. Households would then have an additional small outside food waste caddy  for the weekly food waste collections and a smaller indoor caddy.

If people sign up to the garden waste service they will have a 240l brown wheelie bin. There will be an annual charge for this service and through the consultation we will gauge whether, and how much residents are willing to pay.

A full street survey will take place to exempt certain houses from the services if no space can be found to store bins. We will also encourage households to share bins if they wish,. Larger households will get a visit to see if their waste can be managed in a more appropriate manner.

Households who wish to dispose of nappies will have arrangements for their waste to be collected weekly whilst the child is in nappies.

The Waste Regulations state that, unless it is technically, environmentally or economically impractical, authorities need to collect metal, plastic, glass and paper separately. We could get an income from selling some good quality materials.

The services will be rolled out in a phased approach to iron out any arising issues and to ensure a smooth as possible implementation across the borough.