Contact Officers: Sarah Claridge, Democratic and Electoral Services Officer, 01865 252402, email: sclaridge@oxford.gov.uk and Mathew Metcalfe, Democratic and Electoral Services Officer, 1865 252214, email mmetcalfe@oxford.gov.uk

Councillors Fry, Jones and Simmons introduced the pre-scrutiny report on the draft Waste and Recycling Strategy and went through the Panel’s recommendations.

Treating Waste as a Commodity

Councillor Jones explained the importance of treating waste as a commodity and the desire of the panel to pre-sort the waste before it goes to landfill. Any materials that are diverted from the waste stream, saves the County Council money in landfill tax, and reduces the City’s total waste amount which increases the overall recycling rate. The Cleaner GreenerServices Manager would like to see a waste transfer station to pre-sort waste within the city.

Collecting Food Waste from Flats

The Council does not currently own enough vehicles which can collect the larger communal food waste bins to allow for a full roll out of the food waste collection to all flats across the city. Purchasing two specially equipped vehicles and the staffing costs of 6 people (3 per vehicle) would cost over £900,000 over 3 years.

Collecting Garden Waste

The Cleaner Greener Services Manager explained that the city was currently at a tipping point for collecting garden waste. The City has nearly 14,000 garden waste customers and the city needs another vehicle to expand the service.

Food Waste Bid

The Cleaner Greener Services Manager has made a funding bid to roll out food waste collection across the city. The bid is to fund the purchase of 2 new ‘fit for purpose’ vehicles and staffing costs. The Council will know in December whether it’s been considered as part of the budget setting process. The Committee would like to see the Food Waste bid as soon as it’s made public.

Commercial Waste collection

The Council does not have any corporate targets for commercial waste and is consequently missing out on opportunities to expand its commercial waste collection in the city.

Penalty Notices

The Panel felt that the Council needed to be more forceful in pursuing people who don’t recycle. However there were concerns raised that strict enforcement policies can lead to more people dumbing rubbish in other people’s bins which can lead to higher contamination rates. The Council should therefore focus on positive programmes to encourage recycling rather than negative enforcement campaigns.

The Cleaner Greener Services Manager outlined that Council can only penalise householders for failing to put their waste out for collection not for failing to recycle.

Reducing Packaging

The Cleaner Greener Services Manager expressed concern about the Panel’s packaging recommendation and suggested that the Oxfordshire Joint Waste Partnership was the more appropriate body to recommend this to as they have more scope in there remit to work with businesses to reduce packaging. The Committee agreed.

The Committee resolved:

1.    To see the Food Waste bid as soon as it’s been made public,

2.    That the Finance Panel sees the long list of officer bids for capital and revenue projects proposed for the budget 2014/15, as soon as they are available.

Recommendations to CEB on 13 November

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1

That the strategy reflects in its vision the view that waste is a resource and a commodity from which the Council can generate income, and that the Council should continually be looking for further opportunities to benefit financially from the waste that the City produces.

Recommendation 2

That CEB investigate and cost opportunities to pre-sort and divert recyclables from the household waste collection before sending it to landfill.

Recommendation 3

That the City Executive Board provide to the Scrutiny Committee more detailed information on the costing and feasibility for the options to recycle food from flats that have been considered alongside the details of the current capital bid.

Recommendation 4

That CEB more actively use the penalties at its disposal to convince residents who do not present waste in the manner required.  

Recommendation 5

That CEB investigate, through the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership, local opportunities to reduce excess packaging and reduce the use of plastic bags.

Recommendation 6

That CEB take all opportunities to promote the benefits of food waste separation to commercial customers and investigate opportunities to offer incentives to new business customers.