The Interim Director of Technical Services presented an update in response to the ‘Increasing Recycling’ Motion which was raised at Council on 12 December 2011 (minute 90 refers). A previous Motion termed Bin Charging (minute 22 refers) very much related to this was raised at Council on 12 July 2010 with an update presented at this Committee on 10 March 2011 (minute 128 refers). For the purposes of the report, the update covered the two related motions.

Robert Jones, Waste Strategy and Recycling Manager, introduced the report which stated that increasing the amount of household waste recycled was necessary for every country in Europe. The European Waste Framework Directive (WFD) committed Member States to contribute to achieving a European 50% recycling and composting rate by the year 2020.

The UK Government had committed local authorities of England and Wales to a statutory 50% recycling and composting target by 2020. In 2010, the UK Government passed the Localism Bill, enabling the Government to pass onto individual Councils any fines that might be incurred from Europe as a result of the UK potentially not meeting the target. It was important that Merseyside Waste Partnership (MWP) therefore met a minimum of 50% recycling by 2020 to avoid any potential challenge and resulting fine should the UK Government not meet its 50% recycling rate.

Merseyside districts, Halton Council and the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority were committed to meeting a pooled 50% recycling and composting target by 2020. The options for achieving this target were set out in the Merseyside Joint Recycling and Waste Management Strategy, which Wirral Council approved on 13 February 2012. The pooled target enabled the 6 Local Authorities to benefit from the "recycling performance" achieved at the 14 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC's) including 3 on the Wirral at Bidston, Clatterbridge and West Kirby. The recycling rate at all of these sites for 2011/12 was 54.41%. 

The report gave a breakdown of the recycling rates across the 6 authorities and a detailed performance breakdown on performance to date for Wirral. During the next four years there would be a number of strategic and operational issues that would impact on Wirral’s recycling rate which were outlined in the report, including:

·  Impact of Resource Recovery Contract

·  Options report exploring the costs and benefits of removing the free garden waste collection service

·  Environmental Streetscene Services Contract Review

·  Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Battery Recycling

·  Trade Waste Recycling

Considerable investment by the MWP would be necessary to raise performance. However, the timing and nature of any investment should take into account the affordability of such funding, especially in light of the financial pressures that face all public sector bodies in current times. The partnership needed to work towards a position where any further significant investment in recycling or waste prevention initiatives could be implemented at proportionate cost to each district, in return for proportionate benefits. It was also important to note that for the Partnership to succeed and invest in the most efficient way possible, all districts needed to prioritise the pooled recycling target over its own individual performance and be more accountable to it.

Responding to comments from Members Rob Jones gave some explanation as to why Wirral was performing better than most Merseyside authorities, although this was still only an average performance compared nationally. He also stressed the need for joint scrutiny across the districts to enable low performing districts to be held to account and drive performance across the partnership.

Members expressed concern at the rising costs of landfill tax and that certain actions might result in the progress made in recycling rates being reversed.

The Chair emphasised the need to avoid at all costs the prospect of green / garden waste ending up in green bins. He also suggested that a future report on the garden waste collection service should be brought to this Committee for its views prior to consideration by Cabinet.

On a motion by the Chair, seconded by Councillor Steve Williams, it was –

Resolved (unanimously) – That this Committee:

(1)  Requests the Interim Director of Technical Services to formally write to the Chair of the MRWA Board, the Director of the MRWA and the relevant directors of all Merseyside Councils to request that the partnership develop a suitable mechanism for scrutinising the individual performance of districts.

(2)  Requests the Interim Director of Technical Services to invite the MRWA to present a progress update around increasing the range of materials accepted at the MRF to include a presentation of findings around the viability of rigid plastic recycling, Tetra Pak recycling, metal recycling such as foil and textile recycling.

(3)  Requests the Interim Director of Finance to seek to establish a mechanism either internally or within the Merseyside Waste Partnership that Wirral Council (and district partners where applicable) have access to essential funding, along an ‘invest to save’ principle in order to improve recycling performance and reduce waste being sent to landfill.