From Herefordshire Council:
Herefordshire recycling and waste collections may change for a greener future
Changes to the way we provide the county’s recycling and waste collection and waste disposal services are set to be considered at a cabinet meeting to be held next week (Thursday 25 November).
With tough new environmental standards on the horizon, keeping things as they are now is not an option for us, after we received over 3600 responses to its consultation earlier in the year. In response, 86 per cent said ‘more needs to be done to reduce rubbish and increase recycling’; while 60 per cent accepted ‘the need to change the current rubbish and recycling system’. Over half (56 per cent) of residents favour a separate food waste collection.
If agreed, from late 2023, the changes will see a new weekly food waste collection service and a fortnightly seasonal garden waste collection service. Currently 40 per cent of the contents of the county’s residual waste bins could be recycled and residents have told us more needs to be done.
We are therefore proposing an alternate three-weekly collection service of paper and card on week 1, plastic, cans and glass on week 2 and all other residual waste of week 3.
Separating paper and card from other recyclables will lead to more being accepted by recycling companies for recycling into new products than is the case now. Overall, residents will have much more recycling capacity and, if successful, will be part of an ambitious attempt by us to achieve some of the highest recycling rates in the country.
Changes to the way we collect recycling and waste underpin ambitious environmental targets agreed by cabinet last July to reduce household waste by 36 per cent to less than 330kg a year and more than double the county’s reuse and recycling rates from 40 per cent to 85 per cent by 2035. We hope to end sending any waste to landfill at all by 2035. All this is part of our commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030
The contract with our current waste and recycling collection partner is due to end in 2023 and cannot be extended. Cabinet will be asked to agree to readvertise the service to the industry. Cabinet will also be asked to exercise an option to agree extending the present waste and recycling disposal contract for a further five years.
If agreed, this will drive further savings for us on the cost of our disposal contract to help pay for the new collection service. The extension would also secure immediate environmental benefits. These include a 95 per cent reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill from 20 per cent to just one per cent from April 2022 and steps to ensure all recycled materials can be audited and traced if being sent outside Europe.
As is currently the case, we will work with managing agents, residents associations and people who live in flats to ensure they have a service that reflects their needs but provides maximum opportunities for them to recycle.
For very large families, or for people with medical needs, we will continue to offer additional waste capacity as we do now.
To read the reports and find out how to submit questions to cabinet, click this link.
