Agenda item

To receive a report and presentation summarising the work of Joint Waste Solutions during the 2022/23 financial year.

The Group received a presentation summarising the work of JWS during the 2022/23 financial year and the following key areas of work were noted:

·         The application of QR codes to litter bins in Surrey Heath to simplify the process of reporting full bins or any problems.  This work would now be rolled out across Elmbridge and Mole Valley.

·         The introduction of measured to reduce contamination of Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR) bins at communal properties in Elmbridge and Surrey Heath. 

·         The roll out of food waste collections to approximately 2750 flats in Surrey Heath which had not previously be receiving the service.  This would now be replicated in other joint contract areas.

·         The Surrey Environment Partnership’s Own Your Impact campaign promoting food waste recycling, waste reduction and reduction of contaminated DMR bins had been amplified in the joint contract area.  Work that had resulted in over 300,000 views of the campaign videos, 4.5million viewings of digital adverts and 1.3million viewings of promoted Facebook posts.

·         The production of a video that could be used to supplement collection crews’ training in relation to contamination of recycling bins.

·         The completion of a waste reduction and incentive scheme trial in Elmbridge which aimed to encourage residents to think about and reduce their waste.  This would now be rolled out across Surrey.

·         Intervention work to establish why residents did not recycle food waste was carried out with 23,500 households in Elmbridge and Mole Valley had resulted in a 13-16% increase in the number of food waste bins being presented for collection.  The learning from this work would be used to develop and improve intervention work going forward.

The Committee was informed that the main reasons given for not making use of the food waste recycling service included a perception that it was unhygienic, a lack of awareness of how much food was actually being thrown away and that for some it was more convenient to put food waste in with their general waste than collect it separately.

It was questioned why the JWS home page, which Council websites linked to when reporting an issue or making a service request, asked residents to select which local authority area they were in as this appeared to be an unnecessary additional step in the process.  It was clarified that the home page was used as a place to put additional information that wasn’t displayed elsewhere in the reporting process for example information about service disruptions.  It was agreed that the possibility of adding this information directly to the reporting pages to remove a potentially extraneous step from the process would be followed up.

It was noted that a significant amount of monitoring took place both before and after any interventions were put in place in respect of the contamination trails in Elmbridge which enabled JWS to ascertain how effective different interventions were.  At reducing contamination.  It was agreed that this monitoring information would be shared with the Committee.

Concern that incorporating carbon reduction activities into general work areas could result in carbon reduction work becoming lost was acknowledged.  It was agreed that consideration would be given to highlighting carbon reduction work within each objective.

The Committee noted the update.