North East Lincolnshire Council must wait for a Government decision on a national strategy before it can look at the frequency of recycling collections.
All political parties support the introduction of weekly recycling collections in the borough, as opposed to the current fortnightly collections – but nothing can change locally until the Government have completed a nationwide waste and recycling consultation.
The national plan contains 20 in-depth proposals: read the entire reportt by clicking here.
It reads: “The Government supports frequent and comprehensive rubbish and recycling collections. Since 2010, Government has supported the delivery of these services and making it easier for householders to recycle. This includes £260-million of support for weekly waste collections including regular food waste collections; recycling reward schemes and other measures to promote recycling.
“While many local authorities continue to make improvements and have introduced new services, some have seen a drop in recycling rates or have stopped services such as food waste collection or do not collect the full range of recyclable materials. In addition, apart from Landfill Tax, which incentivised diversion from landfill disposal and has helped to increase recycling rates since it was introduced, there are very few current drivers to encourage local authorities to improve the way they recycle or for businesses to invest in recycling services. This makes it harder to improve the quantity and quality of what we recycle and frustrates householders who want to recycle more but who are increasingly confused over what can and cannot be recycled in their area.
“Members of the public, industry and other stakeholders have called for greater consistency in the materials collected for recycling as well as, to some extent, how it is collected. In 2015, Government took steps to decriminalise householders for minor mistakes in recycling so that action could be focused on offences that have a significant impact on local amenity. However, complex rules about what can and cannot be recycled still confuse householders and unintentionally lead to mistakes in what is recycled. We want to tackle this confusion and make recycling easier for everyone.
“There have also been calls for investment in separate food waste collection to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill, where it releases harmful greenhouse gases. This includes recommendations from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee and the National Infrastructure Commission. Many householders also want to see regular and reliable waste collections to help them recycle more easily.
This consultation is concerned with measures to improve the quantity and quality of what we recycle both at home and at work in England.
“We believe these measures will help to transform recycling in England and to increase recycling rates significantly above 50% towards the much higher recycling rates of 65% that we have set as ambitions in the Resources and Waste Strategy. Proposals which follow from this consultation will take account of the future relationship we will negotiate with EU on environmental matters.
“Government recognises the pressures on local authorities. They will therefore receive additional resource to meet any new net costs arising from the policies set out in this consultation when implemented. This includes both net up front transition costs and net ongoing operational costs.”
Councillor Stewart Swinburn, portfolio holder for Environment and Transport at NELC, told Grimsby Live: “ All local authorities are obliged to publish a waste management strategy that sets outs their ambitions for waste management, recycling rates and environmental impact. North East Lincolnshire Council’s latest Waste Strategy was published in 2009.
“A lot of things have changed since then and we are now looking at reviewing it. The initial work will focus on waste disposal and waste treatment, rather than waste collection methods. A separate report is expected to be discussed by cabinet in the next few months to further set out the time scale for a future waste collection review.
“The Government is proposing some big changes to how recycling and waste is managed in England and this will shape what we do in the future. Full information on the new national requirements has not yet been released and this has an impact on timescales for any changes to the local service offer.”
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