Agenda item

GARDEN WASTE SCHEME

Meeting of Environmental & Public Protection Scrutiny Committee, Monday, 15th January, 2018 10.00 am (Item 6.)

Minutes:

The Committee received for consideration a report on the Garden Waste Scheme. The report provided a summary of the position and outcomes from the first year of the separate chargeable Garden Waste service and set out the arrangements and operational delivery for the scheme for 2018-19.

The Committee noted that the garden waste collection service had been well received with approximately 2500 bins requested with 2400 customers signing up in the first year of operation. The majority of customers signed up online and benefited from a cost reduction of 15%.

The report provided a detailed analysis of the first year operation along with the proposal for year two (2018/19).

The following questions/issues were raised on the report:-

With regard to the potential increase in compost generated across the County, it was asked if there were any figures available on the actual compost generation. The Head of Waste and Environmental Services stated that he didn’t have any figures available, however, the new Teckal Company would need to research the market and look to seek future arrangements for the outputs arising from the composting of grass and food waste.
A comment was raised regarding the lack of provision available for members of the public who were unable to use wheelie bins, this was evident within the analysis of the low number of hessian sacks used. The Head of Waste and Environmental Services acknowledged that the scheme could not be made available to all members of the public where access is difficult and that the hessian sacks do not provide a viable long term solution to this problem. The Council would continue to review alternative options.

The Director of Environment took this opportunity to remind Members that garden waste service was a discretionary service which the Authority were not obligated to provide, hence the charge for the service.

Reference was made to the other Authorities which have operated garden waste services for a number of years and their customer base which would equate to 7,400 households in Carmarthenshire. It was asked how the department was going to set out reaching this number of households. The Head of Waste and Environmental Services stated that whilst there would be logistical difficulties he was comfortable with the 7,400 households as a comparator, however, the target for this service would be to breakeven in 2 to 3 years’ time with a customer base of approximately 5,000.

In order to provide more information, the Director of Environment offered to share the initial business case item with members in order to compare with actuals as they come through. The general consensus of the Committee felt that this would be beneficial.

In response to queries raised regarding charges, the Head of Waste and Environmental Services stated that they were only able to charge for the collection and not for the treatment of waste. Furthermore, the Committee was informed that that charges had increased by 3% due to inflation costs.