Agenda item

To receive a report summarising the work of Joint Waste Solutions since the Committee’s last meeting.

The Committee received a report on progress with the delivery of the joint contract work programme 2023-24. The report period covered 1 December 2023 to mid-February 2024 and builds upon the last update given to the Joint Waste Collection Service Committee on 14 December 2023.

These included:

·         Dual litter/recycling bins have been placed in Elmbridge and are now in use.

Planning is underway for litter bin replacements in Mole Valley and Surrey Heath.

·         Defra have sent details of the capital funding the joint contract authorities are to receive to deliver food waste recycling to remaining households without a collection service. Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) have prepared a challenge back to Defra on behalf of the joint contract authorities as we believe the amounts to be insufficient.

·         The assisted collections review was successfully completed with nearly 3,000

properties within the joint contract area removed from the list requiring this collection.

·         An awareness campaign as part of the work to improve collections of Waste

Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) launched at the start of February 2024.

·         The bring bank review has been completed with recommendations to increase the capture of textiles and income received to be taken forward.

·         Excellent results have now been confirmed from the food waste recycling rollouts to flats in Mole Valley during August 2023, with post monitoring analysis showing the biggest capture of food waste we have ever had from a rollout.

·         Results from the improvements delivered to recycling bins for 329 flats in Elmbridge, during October 2023 show that there has been a significant reduction in the number of heavily contaminated bins, which will lead to an increase in dry mixed recycling (DMR) that can be collected for onward processing.

·         Food waste interventions designed to increase recycling started going out to an additional 4,000 households in Elmbridge from 11 February 2024.

·         The festive phase of the countywide Own Your Impact (OYI) campaign came to an end in early January 2024 with messaging amplified in the joint contract area. The current phase of the OYI campaign focuses on food waste recycling, which launched on 22 January, and will run until 3 March 2024.

·         As of 18 February 2024, 4,690 residents in the joint contract area have signed up to the Rethink Waste scheme, who are committing to reduce the amount of waste they produce. The first funding round for the schools’ donations element of the scheme closes on 1 March 2024, with 8 of the 17 schools from the joint contract area in with a chance of winning a share of £6,000 of funding.

The Committee questioned if the Dual litter bins were funded by the Shared Prosperity Fund and it was confirmed that they were and JWS was using as many used and repurposed stock as it can.

JWS confirmed that more letters are due to go our regarding the Rethink Waste Scheme and it was hoped that more schools would join.

An update was requested on the new litter bins for Mole Valley and JWS confirmed it would provide one. 

The Committee discussed using biofuel in more vehicles and that was confirmed as needing more work.

Amey to supply carbon footprint calculations to Mole Valley and other councils in the group that may require it.