Councillors to discuss food and garden waste consultation results

More than 7,000 borough residents responded to a consultation to seek views on proposals for separate food and garden waste collections.

Councillors will meet on Thursday 23 September at the Leisure and Environment Committee to discuss the results and decide whether to approve the preferred model for separate food and garden waste collections. If approved the model will be implemented in 2022/23 but first the proposal will be presented to Policy Executive Committee and Council.

The following model was proposed by the member working group and discussed at the November 2020 Neighbourhoods and Public Spaces committee:

• A weekly food waste collection service; collected via electric vehicles, provision of a 23 litre outdoor caddy and a 5 litre kitchen caddy for indoor use, and 50 kitchen caddy liners annually to each property free of charge.
• A fortnightly, free of charge garden waste collection, collected via your current green wheelie bins (or garden waste sacks), during peak growing months (March to November each year), with a pause over the winter period (December to February) except for Christmas tree collections in January.

Chair of the Leisure and Environment Committee Councillor Craig Rimmer said:

“We have been set clear targets by The Circular Economy Package, which commit the UK to achieve a recycling rate of 65% by 2035, an ambition we have adopted in Basildon.

“Nationally, the revised Waste Strategy for England and the Environment Bill are also aiming to radically change how waste is reduced, reused and recycled.

“This will affect the way in which local authorities collect and treat waste. The forthcoming Environment Bill states that food and garden waste must be collected separately from homes and businesses from 2023. Because of this there are fewer places which will be able to accept mixed food and garden waste in the future. Over a third of what goes into our black sacks is food waste – this is environmentally damaging, and we must all do our bit to make a difference.

“We are also working hard to become a carbon net-zero authority by 2030 with a borough target of achieving carbon net-zero status by 2050. Separation of food waste for recycling will help to reduce our environmental impact.

“I would like to thank everyone who took part in the consultation.”

Basildon Council sought the views of residents following a successful trial of separate collections which concluded at the start of the year. Of those who took part 88% said they would be happy for it to be introduced.

The formal consultation on the proposals took place from Monday 12 July until Sunday 22 August and early analysis of results shows that the majority of residents strongly supported the proposed size of food waste containers and that the provision of biodegradable liners were strongly supported by residents.

In terms of garden waste collections residents strongly supported a free fortnightly service in March to November and were against charging for weekly collections.