Agenda item

Andy Conn (Head of Waste Management) gave a presentation on the new Waste Collection Service which was designed to give all Wiltshire residents access to the same opportunities for recycling, and to keep landfill to a minimum.

In the Marlborough Community Area, the main impact of the new service would be as follows:

·         New plastic and cardboard collection - Residents in the Marlborough Community Area, and other eastern Community Areas, would receive new blue lidded wheelie bins for cardboard and plastic bottles; these would be delivered in November 2011, with the service beginning from 28 November.

• Free, optional, fortnightly garden waste collection – This new service would come into effect from Spring 2012, with bins being delivered in February 2012.  Residents wishing to register to receive a garden waste bin (and who did not already have one) had until 30 September to do so, to guarantee delivery of a bin before the commencement of the new service.  This could be done via the leaflets available, over the phone or online via the following link: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/rubbishrecycling/gardenbin.htm.  Those residents who currently paid for the service would not have to do anything.  The payments would cease from December 2011.

Any questions on the new service could be directed towards the following telephone number 0300 456 0102

The Chairman thanked Andy for the presentation and invited questions and comments:

·         In response to a question, Andy confirmed that the recyclable plastics were types 1, 2 and 3.  Nearly all plastic bottles were 1, 2 or 3, but only some pots and packaging.  As such, for simplicity and for ease of checking by the crews, only bottles would be accepted in the blue-lidded bins. However, at the Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) all types 1, 2 and 3 plastics would be accepted (i.e. bottles and other shapes).  This was because the crews were able to spend time checking and advising customers.

• In reply to a question regarding the need to invest in automatic sorting equipment, Andy advised that a significant level of investment had been put into this area under the existing contract with Hills which ran from 1996 to 2016.  The tendering process for the new contract would begin around 2013 and it was anticipated that investment in separating equipment would form part of the new contract.  Councillor Toby Sturgis added that the blue lidded bins were of a larger size to allow more flexibility in terms of recyclable materials in the future.

• It was suggested that there remained a perception amongst some residents that as the materials were all mixed up within the boxes, they were just dumped.  Andy replied that this was not the case, and that the crews separated the materials on collection.  This was then checked at the depot, giving an extremely low contamination rate of less than 1%.

• In terms of “side waste” (i.e. excess waste, left at the side of bins for collection) it was advised that the old District Councils had different policies on this, which were slowly being harmonised into a county-wide approach.  Side waste was not really suitable for the new lorries, which used bin lifts to collect the waste.  As such it was preferable for all waste to be in the wheelie bin, with the lid shut.  However, this policy would be enforced in a reasonable and realistic way, with education being the key theme, and stickers on bins being used to advise residents.

• Councillor Toby Sturgis referred to a written question which had been received in relation to collection of waste from Parish-run village playgrounds.  He undertook to look into the issue, as the impact seemed to vary between parishes.

ACTION: Councillor Toby Sturgis