CLEANER COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE 14 February 2018 RECYCLING – HELPING DEVELOP TORFAEN’S STRATEGY TO ENSURE DELIVERY OF THE STATUTORY RECYCLING TARGETS OF 64% BY 2019/20 AND 70% FOR 2024/25 ARE ACHIEVED Report Submitted and Written by: Cynon Edwards, Group Leader Strategic Waste & Operations

1. Area Affected 1.1 County Borough wide. 2. Purpose of Report 2.1 To provide information to Committee on recent activity undertaken in the Waste

and Recycling service undertaken as part of both general service provision and need, and to seek to improve recycling rates.

2.2 To seek Members views around a range of activities that are being considered for

inclusion in Torfaen’s revised Waste Strategy to take us up to and beyond the 2025 targets.

3. Suggested scrutiny activity 3.1 Committee is asked to:

Review the information provided in the report

Consider the activities identified in the report that are proposed for further development prior to inclusion in the new Waste Strategy

Offer any views Committee may have on what further options could be explored to increase recycling rates within the County Borough.

4. Background 4.1 The way we deal with waste in Torfaen has changed dramatically over the last 15-

20 years. At the turn of the century all Municipal Waste whether contained within wheeled bins or placed alongside in black bags were collected and sent directly to landfill for disposal. Only 3-5% of Municipal Waste was being recycled in Torfaen. This performance was replicated across the rest of Wales and the UK.

4.2 This approach was not sustainable, especially with issues related to the

environmental impacts of landfill being better understood and landfill capacity rapidly reducing.

4.3 Various legislative drivers were introduced based around the Landfill Directive in

order to divert waste from Landfill. Whilst initially, some of these originated from European and UK legislation waste is now a devolved area and most legislation relating to Municipal Waste is introduced via the Welsh Assembly Government.

4.4 In 2002 the Welsh Assembly introduced its first Waste Strategy “Wise about

Waste”. One of the key areas targeted was Municipal Waste and various statutory recycling and composting targets were introduced for Municipal Waste up to 2010.

4.5 In 2004, and in response to the initial statutory targets, the Council developed its

first waste management strategy “Watch Your Waste”. This strategy helped the Council to maximise recycling activity through a number of initiatives and service reforms, including the introduction of the Twin Bin scheme and weekly kerbside recycling service

4.6 In 2010, the Welsh Assembly Government then launched “Towards Zero Waste”

The table below identifies the statutory recycling targets introduced for Local Authorities in Wales. Failure to meet these targets can result in £200/te fines for a Local Authority. For Torfaen that would mean for every 1% that the target is missed a fine of around £100k.

Target Year 15/16-18/19 19/20-23/24 24/25

Welsh Government Statutory Target for reuse, recycling and composting

58% 64% 70%

4.7 Responding to these drivers, the need to encourage more recycling was

recognised and referenced within the Council’s Waste Strategy report approved by Cabinet in 2009 and updated in 2011. It identified key areas we needed to focus on to achieve the new targets.

4.8 Various reports have been presented for scrutiny detailing how the Council

proposed to respond to the various European and Welsh policy requirements to which, in their simplest form, aim to increase recycling within Wales.

4.9 The most recent significant change to the waste service from a user viewpoint is

the introduction of skinny bins, which was completed in November 2015, serving to restrict residual capacity of refuse from the previous capacity of 240L to a reduced capacity of 140L. A report detailing a review of this change was presented to this Committee in February 2017.

4.10 Included within that report were details of a number of performance improvements

resulting from the rollout. Recycled food waste increased by 40% and black box recycling increased by 21%. Additionally there was a reduction of 18% in the amount of residual waste collected. The report also detailed increases in participation rates for food and recycling collections.

4.11 The Council also constructed a new Household Waste Recycling Centre at New

Inn. The site enables more than 30 different types of waste to be recycled. 4.12 With additional kerbside recycling collections having been introduced, most items

of Municipal Waste can now be recycled. Examples of waste that the Council is still unable to recycle include plastic bags, plastic film, polystyrene, packaging made of composite materials (e.g crisp cartons/tubes made of combined foil and cardboard), Nappies and ash from coal fires.

4.13 Other initiatives are also provided by Torfaen’s waste service. These include daily waste awareness and waste audits, visits to all schools in Torfaen promoting the importance of minimising waste production and promoting the need for recycling, presentations to community groups and roadshow events.

4.14 The Council operates a Trade Waste collection service to around 20% businesses

and most of the schools in Torfaen. The service covers waste collection, recycling and disposal of customers’ waste. We also undertake waste audits for our trade customers to encourage them to recycle more of their waste which in turn assists our customers to reduce costs.

4.15 Additionally, over the last couple of years the Council has been working

collaboratively to establish new long term contracts for residual waste, food and green waste treatment. We also have a long term contract for managing the Household Waste Recycling Centre.

4.16 During 2017-18, we have also transferred the bulking and baling operation of the

collected dry recycling to the Council to sit alongside the Sale and Marketing of the material collected. Together this has enabled the Council to directly benefit from the sale of all of the recycled materials collected at the kerbside. For 2016-17 it is likely that we will generate £690k from the sale of the collected recycling. This income helps to subsidise the overall recycling collection and bailing costs. Additionally, we are currently in the process of redeveloping the site which will enable it to operate more efficiently and provide greater opportunity for additional commercial recycling opportunities in future.

4.17 Whilst the existing Waste Strategy developed in 2009 has helped Torfaen to

achieve the current statutory recycling target of 58%, we need to encourage more residents to recycle their waste in order to achieve the 70% recycling target in 2024-25.

4.18 We have undertaken a major consultation with residents to identify what they

would like to see included within a new Waste Strategy for Torfaen. This was reported back to Scrutiny in September 2016, who supported the key themes identified in the report. It was also highlighted by the Committee that Education and Awareness activities would need to be a key theme within the new Strategy.

4.19 This report is providing a further opportunity to consult with Scrutiny regarding key

activities that have been identified that we believe need to be addressed within the new Waste Strategy.

4.20 We are currently in the process of developing a new draft Waste Strategy for

Torfaen. This will be presented to Scrutiny for further consideration prior to consulting on the final draft document with the public.

5. Decisions to be made 5.1 None. 6. Expected outcomes 6.1 The Committee will be able to review the information set out in the report and offer

a view on what options can be explored to further increase recycling to meet statutory targets.

7. Issues and Findings

7.1 As previously mentioned recycling has increased significantly over the last 15-20

years. The table below highlights Torfaen’s performance during this period.

7.2 During 2016-17 Torfaen achieved a recycling rate of 63.6% - above the Wales target of 58%. This compares to a Wales average of 63.8%. Further details can be found in the Welsh Government Statistical Bulletin dated 19 October 2017, details of which can be found at http://gov.wales/docs/statistics/2017/171019-local-authority-municipal-waste-management-2016-17-en.pdf

7.3 It was recently reported within the National Media that Wales now has the second

highest recycling performance of any Country in the World. Only Germany has a higher performance at around 64%. It is anticipated that by next year that Wales will be in 1st place.

7.4 The increase in Torfaen has been driven delivered through the changes introduced

over recent years. The most significant change was the introduction of skinny bin which helped recycling increase from 52.7% in 2014-15 (the last full year prior to skinny bin) to 63.6% in 2016-17 (the first full year following skinny bin rollout).

7.5 The increase in recycling performance is to be welcomed and seen as a successful

outcome, more stringent targets are on the horizon, so continued efforts in increasing this performance are needed.

7.6 Education and Awareness 7.6.1 The Council already undertakes an extensive Education and Awareness campaign

both with the public, schools and businesses within the authority. Three members of the existing Waste Policy team work full time on waste education and awareness activities. We regularly provide talks to community groups and schools. All schools in Torfaen have received a talk covering waste issues over the last year. We also publish a newsletter each term, Torfaen Talks, which we distribute to all schools in

Torfaen which cover key issues within waste and sustainability and regularly run competitions through the publications.

7.6.2 It is proposed that existing education and awareness activities will continue in the

future. However, to ensure it is able to be more effective we will be seeking to deliver targeted awareness activities on households that do not recycle their waste.

7.7 Kerbside Collections 7.7.1 Whilst the Council provides a range of kerbside recycling services, not everyone

decides to recycle their waste. Some residents decide either to place all their waste within the purple lidded bins, or take additional bagged residual waste to the Household Waste Recycling Centre for disposal.

7.7.2 In 2016-17 the Council monitored participation in the Council’s recycling scheme

and identified that 94.12% of households placed their recycling out for collection, and 58.85% placed their food waste out for collection. Prior to the rollout of skinny bin, (15/16) 90.20% participated in recycling and 54.26% participated in food recycling.

7.7.3 Participation only identifies the number of households taking part in recycling.

However, it does not identify the frequency that a household places out their recycling container, or if all items that could be recycled is recycled.

7.7.4 One of the challenges in future is to encourage those households who do not

recycle their food waste to participate in future. During recent surveys undertaken in Torfaen, many households who said that they did not currently recycle food waste believed that they did not generate any food waste.

7.7.5 In 2015, the Welsh Assembly Waste Team commissioned a National Waste

Compositional Survey to be undertaken. Whilst this provided a national picture, the breakdown was also provided to each local authority. In Torfaen residual waste was collected from 406 properties and analysed to see what residents were throwing away in their purple lidded residual waste bin. The pie chart below identifies the breakdown of waste contain in the bins for Torfaen.

1. Paper and Card17%

2. Plastic Film10%

3. Dense Plastic

8%

4. Textiles5%

5. Other Combustible

15%

6. Other Non-Combustible

6%

7. Glass2%

8. Putrescibles

31%

9. Ferrous Metal

2%

10. Non Ferrous Metal

1%

11. Waste Electrical and

Electronic Equipment

1%

12. Potentially Household Hazardous

Waste Items1%

13. Fines1%

14. Recycling sacks

0%

7.7.6 The findings for Torfaen was almost identical to the findings for Wales as a whole. 7.7.7 Despite the rollout of the skinny bin scheme, over 46% of the waste that was still

being thrown away in the residual bin were items that Torfaen currently provide kerbside recycling collections to the households sampled. Around half of that waste is food waste – mostly food still contained within its food packaging. Additionally, almost 11% of waste thrown away could have been recycled at the Household Waste Recycling Centre.

7.7.8 In 2016-17 Torfaen collected over 15,000te of residual waste from households in

Torfaen. The findings from the compositional analysis identifies that 8,500te of that waste could have been recycled. If this waste was recycled Torfaen’s recycling performance would be able to be increased by 15%.

7.7.9 This lost recycling clearly provides a significant opportunity for both participation

and tonnage growth in future. 7.7.10 This is also supported in our experience when we undertake waste audits with

residents who contact the Council to inform us that they are unable to contain all of their residual waste within their purple lidded bins. Despite stating that they recycle everything they can, when we visit these residents we find that their residual waste contains food and recyclable waste.

7.7.11 Additionally, households that do recycle their waste do not always recycle all their

recyclable waste. This could be as a result of choice e.g. food waste or alternatively not realising that certain waste can be recycled e.g. plastic packaging.

7.7.12 For these households, promotional activities together with targeted awareness

activities will need to be utilised to help them to recycle the waste that they can.

7.7.13 The Council is currently working on an innovative project with the Welsh Audit Office to develop an improved method for identifying barriers to why residents do not recycle their food waste. A new type of survey was recently launched at a Member’s Seminar, and is currently being trialed via scheduled waste awareness community group meetings. It is expected that the findings from the survey work will influence future awareness and education initiatives.

7.7.14 Experience from other Council’s, such as RCT, who are currently undertaking this

type of work suggests that regular door knocking of the same properties that place recycling out intermittently has helped to increase the frequency that the household places containers for recycling. Whilst this is very resource intensive, it could be funding through avoided disposal costs. This is a long term commitment and would be targeted on areas of lowest recycling performance.

7.7.15 For households who still will not engage in recycling despite this targeted

awareness campaigns, the Council will need to consider other activities to encourage the household to participate in recycling. This could include enforcement.

7.7.16 A number of Local Authorities in Wales are looking at this option, and the Welsh

Government has recently undertaken a consultation where they were proposing that failing to comply with Local Authority waste policies could be enforced using fixed penalty notices in future.

7.7.17 In January 2018, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council announced that

they are seeking to introduce fines of £75 to residents who place recycling within their residual waste bin.

7.7.18 In summary there are a number of activities that could be considered to encourage

residents who currently do not recycle to participate in recycling schemes. The Waste Team has not yet developed plans or the resource and financial implications for these activities. However, given the current financial situation in the Council the proposals would be funded through a return on investment via avoided disposal costs. The Table below provides an initial review of the pros/cons of the potential options that we are considering.

Activity +ve -ve

Target awareness visits on residents who do not recycle waste that we have identified through participation monitoring

Targeted activity – efficient use of resources

Weekly participation monitoring enabling rapid feedback on effectiveness of doorknocking campaing

Targeting of low participation areas

Ability to resolve barriers that

Resource intensive – significant number of additional staff required

Small areas targeted at a time

Need to be undertaken on a weekly basis over an extended period to bed in behavior change

When we target another area residents

households identify that prevent them recycling are addressed quickly

Immediate savings realised due to reduction in disposal

Encourages residents to use recycling containers/facilities properly

Some other authorities have seen immediate improvements

may revert back to not recycle

Perceived “nanny state”

Residents may decide not to engage

Activity likely needed to be undertaken at different times/days to normal operating hours

Develop Enforcement Policy where fines would be issued to households that place recyclable items in their purple lidded bins

Could work in conjunction with a targeted awareness campaign (as above)

Identified as a key activity by residents during the public consultation

Reassures residents that do recycle that we take action on residents who refuse to recycle

Likely awareness of enforcement may encourage residents to recycle

Households may be switched off from considering recycling even further

Increased use of legal resources due to challenges/failure to pay fines

Waste team resources being used to handle enforcement queries rather than focusing on awareness activities

Negative media resulting in dilution of awareness messages

7.7.19 We are engaging with the Committee at this early stage to seek your views on the

potential activities identified within the above table. Please consider the activities and provide your initial feedback for us to consider in the development of the Strategy.

7.8 Household Waste Recycling Centre 7.8.1 In 2014-15 the Council developed a new Household Waste Recycling Centre. 7.8.2 The new site provides further opportunities for recycling at the Household Waste

Recycling Centre in New Inn. In addition to the materials collected at the kerbside residents are able to recycle around 20 other waste streams including metal waste, wood, car batteries, white goods and fridges, electrical appliances, items that can be reused such as bicycles, and small quantities of rubble and hardcore.

7.8.3 However, many residents bring waste into the site and place it directly within the

container labelled as “Non-Recyclable Waste Only”. This is despite the fact that the

waste can easily be recycled. Whilst the site has seen a significant increase in performance in the last couple of years, we have also seen an increase in residual waste from residents being placed in the container.

7.8.4 Since Skinny Bin was introduced, there has a 36% increase in the tonnage of

waste that is recycled at the site. However, during the same period the amount of residual waste has increased 8%.

7.8.5 Some Local Authorities that achieve higher recycling performance at their HWRC’s

either restrict the number of bags that can be placed in the “Non-Recyclable Waste Only” or have policies where either residents or staff are required to sort through the waste on site prior to it being placed in the “Non-Recyclable Waste Only”.

7.8.6 An additional way that some Local Authorities have enabled higher recycling is to

allow businesses to use their Recycling Centers for recycling their waste. For Torfaen to consider this, we would need to develop a site and a pricing model where businesses could utilise the site for recycling their waste.

7.8.7 In summary there are a number of activities that could be considered to reduce the

amount of residual waste placed in the residual skip. Whilst we have had an initial discussion with the waste contractor operating the site, the Waste Team has not yet developed plans or the resource and financial implications for these activities. However, given the current financial situation in the Council the proposals would be funded through a return on investment via avoided disposal costs. The Table below provides an initial review of the pros/cons of the potential options that we are considering.

Activity +ve -ve

Restrict bagged residual waste to the site (e.g. maximum of 2 bags per visit)

Reduced residual waste brought to site

Increase in recycling

Savings due to reduction in disposal costs

Residents encouraged to recycle their waste when visiting the HWRC as well as at home

Encourages residents who currently bring bagged household waste to the site (to avoid recycling at home) to sort through their waste and recycle at home

Additional waste may be flytipped

Residents bring waste loose rather than in bags and still place it in the non-recyclable skip

Resident make more trips to the site (2 bags each time)

A large number of site users impacted – especially initially

Additional Council staff required on site

Potential increase in flytipping

All bags to be sorted at the site

Reduced residual waste

Increased recycling

Turnaround times at the non-recyclable skip increased

Savings due to reduction in disposal costs

Encourages residents who currently bring bagged household waste to the site (to avoid recycling at home) to sort through their waste and recycle at home

Potential conflict with residents who refuse to sort through their waste

Residents not keen on other people seeing what they have in their waste

Additional Council staff required on site

Potential increase in flytipping

Ban on all Black Bags to site

Significant reduction of residual waste

Significant increase in recycling

Significant savings due to reduction in disposal costs

Encourage users to sort their waste prior to arrival at site

Residents who bring black bags to site and turned away decide to flytip their waste

Delays at site due to residual waste being brought loose onto site

Bagged residual waste placed in, and contaminate, recycling skips

Additional Council staff required on site

Potential increase in flytipping

7.8.8 We are engaging with the Committee at this early stage to seek your views on the

potential activities identified within the above table. Please consider the activities above and provide your initial feedback for us to consider in the development of the Strategy.

7.9 Bulking and Baling Depot 7.9.1 During 2017 the operation for the bulking and baling of the kerbside collected

recycling has been brought in house. This complements the sale and marketing of the dry recycling activities which were taken over by the Council in 2016.

7.9.2 These changes have enabled the Council to both realise additional income through

the sale of the collected recycling, and the opportunity to reduce costs at Torfaen’s bulking and baling facility. As a result of transferring the bulking and baling operation in house we are on target to realise a saving of around £60k this year.

7.9.3 At the end of 2017, the Waste Team secured funding from the Welsh Government

towards the redevelopment of the bulking and baling depot. This will increase the capacity for increasing throughput through the site. Once completed we will be looking to increase our trade recycling service. This will assist in increasing recycling further as we would be targeting recycling materials such as cardboard and paper and not residual waste.

7.10 Waste Procurements 7.10.1 Over the last few years the Waste Team has been working collaboratively with

other Council’s to secure long term waste treatment contracts. These have been part of an all Wales procurement process to encourage appropriate treatment facilities to be developed. They have been undertaken via the formation of regional waste partnerships, containing a number of Local Authorities, and procuring treatment facilities for the combined waste. This approach has proved very successful with new national treatment facilities in Wales having been developed for residual and food waste.

7.10.2 Procurements have been concluded and long term contracts have been

established for residual waste and green waste. 7.10.3 The procurement for a long term food waste treatment contract is in its final stages

with contract commencement expected in the next few months. 7.10.4 The contract for the management of the Council’s Transfer Station and HWRC

contains incentives and penalties on the contractor to encourage additional initiatives to increase recycling performance at the New Inn sites.

7.11 Benchmarking Performance with other Local Authorities 7.11.1 Heads of Service of all 22 Local Authorities in Wales work together via the waste

group formed as part of the County’s Surveyor Society. The group also has senior officers from the Welsh Government’s Waste Policy Team, Welsh Local Government Association, Welsh Audit Office and Natural Resources Wales.

7.11.2 One of the key areas of work co-ordinated by the group is benchmarking waste

performance within Local Authorities and identified examples of best practice for consideration of all Local Authorities.

7.11.3 The benchmarking activities are undertaken by the Waste Improvement Team

within the WLGA and the findings are fed back in an annual report to the Welsh Government (see Appendix 1).

7.11.4 The outcome of the benchmarking process is a series of recommendations for

Local Authorities for consideration based on best practice identified during the annual reviews. Some of the recommendations relate to the efficiency of the service whilst others relate to increasing recycling performance.

7.11.5 These recommendations have in the past included the redevelopment of existing

Household Waste Recycling Centres, introduce restrictions on residual capacity and review efficiency of collection rounds

7.11.6 Current areas being reviewed include the consideration of restricting waste placed

in the residual waste skips at Household Waste Recycling Centres, considering expanding the range of kerbside collected items to include small electrical waste and looking at ways to encourage behavioral change in those residents that currently do not recycle their waste.

7.11.7 All of the above recommendations are currently being developed by the waste team in Torfaen.

8. Consultation 8.1 No consultation was necessary related to the production of this report. 9. Implications 9.1 The report has been prepared so that the Committee can consider recent actions

taken as part of the service area’s work and for them to comment on what actions they consider could be explored to assist in increasing recycling performance within Torfaen.

10. Risks 10.1 Risks in not maintaining and increasing the current level of recycling within Torfaen

are less waste being recycled, more waste being put out for disposal and as a result lower recycling performance and higher costs for the Council.

11. Actions to be taken following consideration by the scrutiny committee 11.1 The Waste Team will consider what action may be required following feedback

from the Committee, and will consider the comments as part of the completion of a new Waste Strategy.

12. Monitoring and evaluation 12.1 None. 13. Conclusion/summary 13.1 This report outlines the outcomes of the skinny bin rollout and also the work

undertaken in the recent past to maintain and improve recycling performance. The report highlights a number of workstreams being undertaken to ensure the service continues to operate efficiently, including maintaining and seeking to improve recycling rates.

14. Suggested scrutiny activity 14.1 Committee is asked to:

Review the information provided in the report

Consider the activities identified in the report that are proposed for further development prior to inclusion in the new Waste Strategy

Offer any views Committee may have on what further options could be explored to increase recycling rates within the County Borough

Appendices Appendix 1 - All Wales Waste Management Benchmarking Group Recommendations

Background Papers

Note: Members of the public are entitled, under the Local Government Act 1972, to inspect background papers to reports. The following is a list of the background papers used in the production of this report. TCBC Council report entitled “Reducing Residual Waste Capacity”, dated 21st October 2014 Cleaner Overview and Scrutiny Committee report entitled “Feedback on the recent consultation on the development of a new Waste Strategy for Torfaen”, dated 21st September 2016 Cleaner Overview and Scrutiny Committee report entitled “Review of the rollout of skinny bins and its impact on performance during the year since its rollout”, dated 2nd February 2017

For a copy of the background papers or for further information about this report, please telephone: Cynon Edwards, Group Leader Strategic Waste & Operations, 01495 766789, cynon.edwards@torfaen.gov.uk