Issue - decisions

Matter for Decision

The Officer’s report provided a summary of the progress and performance for the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service (GCSWS) during 2018/19.

The principle of producing a single Annual Report for the shared services was agreed at committee in July 2015. The overarching Annual Report for the Greater Cambridge Shared Services covers the Waste, Planning and Internal Audit services, but only the Waste Service falls under this Committee’s remit and therefore the service report has been extracted and included in the Officer’s report.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Climate Change, Environment & City Centre

Noted the contents of the Officer’s report.

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Head of GCSWS.

The Head of GCSWS said the following in response to Members’ questions:

       i.          The recycling rate was the amount of waste recycled out of the total amount collected. This was based on the Defra national weight based scheme.

     ii.          It was not possible to identify recycling rates for different city wards, but information could be broken down into amounts of dry or organic waste. It may be possible to identify a daily recycling rate in future.

   iii.          Seasonal variance affected recycling rates shown on P36 of the agenda. The amount of organic waste collected affected the variance.

   iv.          Officers did not recommend amending the recycling target although it had been met. Seasonal variances would affect if a target was met or not.

    v.          Giving people bin collection options had stopped contamination of recycling materials with low quality waste.

   vi.          50% was the national recycling target. The Shared Waste Service had exceeded these despite a change in the waste service in 2017. The European Union target was higher. Officers expected the national and EU targets to rise to 65% in future, which would impact on Shared Waste Service targets.

 vii.          The City Council was in the top quartile of recycling rates when compared to other cities. Some other city’s recycling rates were higher, but others were lower.

viii.          Central Government were expected to develop a 25 year waste strategy in the next 12-15 months. Officers recommended making no change to recycling rate targets until the Strategy was published.

The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendation.

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.