Agenda item

C Thorpe introduced the report and confirmed that it had been circulated to the Committee.

-New Service introduced in 2014/15 Blue Bin and Food Waste bin introduced and weekly collection of food waste began.

-Flats were not included in the new service. Participation and Contamination were concerns.

-Task Group consisting of Officers and Members looked at options around providing a service which was the same for all residents. 

- 3 month food trial introduced to see if Residents would engage, then facts and figures would be looked at to make a decision for the future.  It was made clear that this was a trial.

Cllr Birnie said that the costs were shown to make permanent, but asked what would the plus side.

C Thorpe replied that there would not necessarily be a saving but we would be providing the same service to everyone, and also improves our environmental credentials, as we will be diverting another couple of hundred ton a year from landfill.

Cllr Timmis asked if there was a possibility of using the food waste with digesters that produce energy and whether food waste was collected from Restaurants and Cafes.

C Thorpe explained that all our food waste goes to energy and is sold back to the National Grid which gave us a saving over sending to landfill. Commercial collections needs further work.

Cllr Riddick said he thought the numbers on the 7 year programme didn’t make sense as numbers would escalate when we have more properties.

C Thorpe said we still have stock so no increase on that but new properties have not been factored into the scheme.

Cllr Riddick felt that it would have a significant impact on the figures and asked if C Thorpe could look into this and report back.

Cllr Matthews said he thought it was an interesting initiative and wanted to know what type of contamination is in the bins and when the bins were taken away was there any evidence of food waste being left where bins were.

C Thorpe said that it is not always possible to tell the level of contamination but there had been no rejected loads from the energy and waste plant and they can receive and remove  upto 20% level of contamination. He confirmed that there had been no issues of fly-tipping food waste.

M Parr said that if we proceed with rolling out this service to flats, there would be more information and help given to tenants in order that they could recycle successfully.

Cllr Anderson said that it was the first trial that he could remember where we have actually stopped the trial and he would share the residents frustration being told that they cannot recycle anymore and asked was the trial only stopped due to financial reasons .

C Thorpe replied that the reasons were not purely financial but there was a cost of hiring a vehicle and employing a driver to carry out that trial and it could have been a complete failure, so with a start and end date to allow evaluation of the success of the trial.

Cllr Anderson asked what was next.

C Thorpe said that was for the members to decide, the trial was a success contamination was low participation levels were high.

Cllr Sutton said that going back to comments regarding Digesters, he had seen the Digester in action at Cobham and it was very interesting.  It produces energy and also the residue is sprayed on food crops. He felt that we should explain on the website etc as people may then become more interested in doing it.

M Parr explained that our website contains all the information as to how we deal with our waste and we also share as much as we are able on Social Media and in Dacorum Digest etc. http://www.dacorum.gov.uk/home/environment-street-care/recycling-refuse-waste/what-happens-to-my-recyclables

Cllr Marshall  said that she would personally like to see this go ahead 2019/2020.

Cllr Wyatt-Lowe asked if it was within remit to decide if the committee wanted to support.

Cllr Anderson asked if the committee supported the item and it was seconded and agreed.