Government

Councils consult on reducing waste costs

Powys and Surrey county councils have both announced public consultations on changes to waste management services that aim to reduce costs.

Powys residents are being asked to provide their opinions on a potential move from a fortnightly to a three-weekly residual waste collection service.

The council is looking to bring in less frequent residual waste collections in a bid to ‘ encourage residents to utilise the weekly recycling services (including food waste)’, thus cutting disposal costs and helping to meet the Welsh Government’s recycling targets (of 58 per cent by 2015/16, 64 per cent by 2019/20 and 70 per cent by 2024/2025).

If approved, the three-weekly collections will run alongside weekly separate-sort recycling collections, including food waste.

Councillor John Powell, cabinet member for environment and sustainability, said: “Continuing reductions to public sector funding have left the council having to reduce it’s spending by £27 million over the next three years.

“We would encourage residents to complete the survey to provide their views to help shape the future of rubbish collections in Powys.

“We would also like to urge residents to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste at every opportunity to minimise the amount of rubbish placed in the wheeled bin.”

Views can be given via an online consultation, which will launch on the council website on Monday (10 August). Paper copies of the proposals and surveys will also be available in all libraries.

The consultation closes on Friday 28 August 2015.

Surrey consultation

Councils consult on waste offerings

In related news, Surrey County Council is also undergoing a consultation process on reducing waste costs “in the face of growing financial pressures”.

A consultation that called on residents to submit their thoughts on ways of ‘maximising value’ of the council’s Community Recycling Centres (CRCs) launched last week and will run until 30 September.

It is estimated that Surrey County Council currently spends £57 million a year on waste management. This includes running the 15 CRCs, which collect approximately 145,000 tonnes of waste and recycling a year.

The council has already sought to reduce the cost of CRCs by recycling more of the waste that’s collected, introducing a permit scheme to ensure businesses do not use them for free, checking ID cards to make sure that only Surrey residents use the CRCs and increasing the number of materials that can be recycled domestically.

The current consultation will seek residents’ views on options to make a further saving of £1.8 million. This is needed to help cover demands for other services such as adult social care, which will ‘cost tens of millions of pounds without increased funding’.

Options include:

  • banning or introducing charges for disposal of non-household waste (i.e. rubble, plasterboard and tyres), which costs Surrey taxpayers £1.3 million a year to dispose of;
  • reducing opening hours on weekdays;
  • closing CRCs on the least busy weekdays;
  • fully closing some CRCs;
  • only accepting waste at CRCs in clear plastic bags; or
  • selling good quality second-hand items at CRCs.

Mike Goodman, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “We face tough decisions because of the pressures our finances are under but whatever we do we will make sure there is a comprehensive network of centres covering the whole county. And people will still be able to take everyday household and garden waste to our centres free of charge.

“I would urge residents to complete the survey to give their views. We will carefully consider the feedback we get so we can make the right decisions.”

The consultation process is set to run until 30 September.

Find out more about the Powys or Surrey waste consultations.

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