Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed Dominic Hogg and Eric Bridgwater from Eunomia who attended as guest speakers and delivered their presentation on the measuring of waste management. This follows from a decision made at the July Board meeting to invite specialist speakers to present to members with alternative options for how waste could be measured in the future.

Dominic and Eric focused on a brief indication on the future of waste management, an analysis of the current framework and provided an options appraisal of the alternative frameworks of waste measurement.

Sonika Sidhu, Senior Adviser, introduced the report and outlined its timely nature as we anticipate the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) 25 year environmental strategy and an accompanying waste and resource strategy in the New Year. Additionally, the UK’s exit from the EU will have a significant impact at local authority level, creating opportunities to do things differently and challenges that will need to be addressed.

Sonika stressed waste and recycling is one area that the LGA would be prioritising in its discussions with Government as this is a service which should be subject to local determination.

Discussion

In the discussion which followed, these points were made;

·         There was general agreement from the Board that incremental waste and recycling targets should be set, outlining a clear path to the final target.

·         The Board also highlighted the salience of plastic minimisation with the current media attention this issue is getting. Particular issue raised was that plastic, being a light object, does not contribute highly to weight based recycling targets. The Board requested LGA officers dedicate some work on specific plastic reduction.

·         The Chairman requested for a future Board meeting officers to develop a strategy for how the Board can better work with government to reduce the amount of plastic use.

·         Members stressed the difficulty of a national strategy due to the variance in waste and recycling levels between urban and rural areas.

Decision

Members supported focussing on broadening out the approach to waste management beyond recycling targets to residual waste arising and measuring this per capita.

Members expressed an interest in the possibility of a dashboard approach which looks at a variety of measures

The Environment, Economy, Housing and Transport Board agreed to move towards lobbying for a residual waste rising target, although this would need to take into account a number of factors including household income.

Action

The Board requested officers work and bring to a future Board meeting an analysis on current issues and work on plastic reduction.