Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

This report provides an update on progress in delivering waste, recycling, and fly-tip removal. Describing how the activity contributes to the climate change agenda and key priorities for future. Updates are also included for commercial waste, flats above shops and Christmas collection arrangements.

The Committee considered the report of Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) that provided an update on progress in delivering waste, recycling, and fly-tip removal.

Key points and themes in the report included:

·         Providing an introduction and background, noting that waste disposal and recycling arrangements for Manchester and other Greater Manchester Authorities (except. Wigan) are managed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the operating contract for the disposal and recycling facilities, together with Household Waste Recycling Centre’s (HWRCs) was delivered by Suez;

·         Noting the Councils service provider Biffa were responsible for providing scheduled domestic waste and recycling bin collections; and reactive / pro-active (passageways and known hotspots) fly-tip removal services for defined land types;

·         Describing how the activity contributed to the climate change agenda;

·         Information on relevant national strategies;

·         Performance data across a range of activity types;

·         Information on the waste collection contract;

·         Information on passageway collections and cleansing;

·         Flytipping and the work to address this, including target hardening projects;

·         Updates on commercial waste; flats above shops and Christmas collection arrangements; and

·         Providing case studies across a range of activities described.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

·         Recycling opportunities needed to be promoted and encouraged in apartment blocks, especially the ability to recycle food waste;

·         Was there any update since the report had been written regarding national policy, noting that The Waste Strategy (2018) had been subject to several delays;

·         More information was sought on Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) and Keep Manchester Tidy (KMT) campaigns;

·         Discussing the incidents of flytipping in Manchester and the comparative data provided against other local authorities;

·         Noting that flytipping on non-council owned or no public-land was not removed in a timely manner;

·         The experience of reporting flytipping and frustrations experienced.

The Strategic Lead, Waste, Recycling & Street Cleansing Team stated that there had been no further updates since the report had been produced in relation to national policy and they continued to lobby the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for updates, and that she shared the Committee’s frustrations. She said that despite this Manchester and Greater Manchester were actively working to eliminate avoidable waste before the 2050 target presented in the Defra Waste Prevention Programme. She further commented that the work of KBT and KMT had been reported to the previous meeting, with officers in attendance. She stated that they were seeking to progress the request to establish a regular update to all members on their activities.

The Strategic Lead, Waste, Recycling & Street Cleansing Team address the discussion on the flytipping statistics that were presented in the report. She said that there had been a spike in incidents post covid, however incidents of flytipping were still unacceptably high. In response to the comparative data provided she said that it was difficult to draw conclusions from this data as there was inconsistency across the authorities in how they collated their data. She advised that work was ongoing across Greater Manchester to consider this.

The Strategic Lead, Waste, Recycling & Street Cleansing Team said that teams would continue to work with landowners to ensure that flytipping was removed as they had a responsibility to remove waste, however ultimately cases could be referred for enforcement action to have it appropriately removed and disposed of. In response to a specific question, she said that when flytipping was removed but it had not been formally reported as a request for service this would not be included in the data.

The Strategic Lead, Waste, Recycling & Street Cleansing Team commented the questions asked by a Member relating to the recycling of litter picked waste would be addressed in a written response to be provided following his written submissions after the previous meeting.

The Project Officer, Waste, Recycling & Street Cleansing Team said that they would continue to work with building managers when requested to facilitate and support recycling in their buildings on behalf of the residents, particularly in regard to food waste and textiles. He said the service would continue to promote this offer with building managers. He advised that there was no legal requirement for buildings to provide food waste recycling facilities.

The Project Officer, Waste, Recycling & Street Cleansing Team acknowledged the comment from Members regarding the frustrations expressed in their attempts to report incidents of flytipping using the Councils CRM (Customer relationship management) system. He commented that the introduction of a new RDXP system should resolve the issues articulated.

The Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods said that delays in the governments Waste Strategy (2018) was very frustrating, however Manchester had taken the decision to invest additional resources to address flytipping and develop initiatives to work with and support communities to tackle flytipping. She further paid tribute to the many volunteers across the city who were working to ensure Manchester was a clean and greener city. She called for all businesses and landowners to support this ambition.

The Chair in concluding this item of business welcomed the recycling data that had been provided and the information relating to the arrangements over the Christmas period. 

Decision

To note the report.