Issue - meetings

To receive the Street Services update report, including the Waste Education action plan.

Councillor Susan Barker summarised the Street Services report for members’ consideration.

The report outlined a high level action plan for waste education and awareness, with a view of reducing the level of contamination in recycling collection services and increase participation in food waste collection. Awareness would be raised in a number of ways, such as visual aids, stickers and posters, but education would also be directed towards schools, as it had been shown that children passed on such knowledge to their parents.

In response to a question from the Chairman, Councillor S Barker said stickers would be applied to communal bins in ‘houses in multiple occupation’ (HMOs) to lower the levels of contamination and help improve the rate of recycling in shared homes.

The Chairman said it was worth considering a monetary penalty, or tax rise, for those who had high levels of contamination in their recycling waste. He said this system could be found in mainland Europe.

Councillor Oliver said the government should ensure a uniform waste and recycling system was put in place nationwide, as many of the problems stemmed from new residents who had moved into the district and who did not understand the new system they were being asked to adhere to.

In response to a member question, Councillor S Barker said the waste vehicles were powered by diesel but she could look into the viability of alternative fuelled vehicles.

The report was noted.