Sheffield city council has approved plans to improve its kerbside recycling service at a cost of up to £3.1 million a year, despite needing to make cutbacks of up to £18 million in its overall spending for 2010/11.

The council approved proposals to increase both the frequency and range of materials included in its kerbside collections as part of a new waste strategy for 2009-2020 at a cabinet meeting last week (November 25).

(l-r) Cabinet member councillor Shaffaq Mohammed and Sheffield city council leader, councillor Paul Scriven, launching the city's new recycling service

The changes to the service, which is operated by the council's waste contractor Veolia under a 30-year deal signed in 2001, will involve the current monthly recycling collection being made fortnightly.

Plastic bottles, cans and glass will be added to the paper and card which householders can currently recycle. The council's garden waste collection - which is available to one-fifth of residents - will meanwhile be rolled out to a monthly service for all households.

Commenting on the improvements, the council's cabinet member for climate change and local environment, councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, stressed that they came as part of a range of measures in the waste strategy which also targeted waste reduction and reuse.

"However, given that Sheffield has the lowest kerbside recycling service satisfaction rate of any major city and the rest of Yorkshire, we know that a transformation in this area is required," he said.

"I'm confident that our plans will deliver this to ensure that we see a recycling revolution right across Sheffield," he added.

Cost

Sheffield's 2009/10 budget for recycling and waste management is £28 million, and the council stressed that the exact cost of the improvements to the service would need to be agreed with Veolia.

The Waste Strategy explains that there were will be a phased introduction of the new service during 2010/11 and the council said that it hoped to limit the impact next year to £2 million.

It said: "Whilst the full year costs of the new service area assessed at £3.1m there will be a phased introduction for each of the elements during 2010/11 generating a gross extra cost of circa £2.3m.

"Further review is being carried out around the funding structure of the contract and the underlying waste volumes which is expected to limit the impact to £2m," it added.

In a report on advance budgeting measures, which was also approved by the Cabinet last week, the council revealed that, overall, it expected to have to make £18 million in savings to balance its budget for 2010/11.

Citing expected funding cuts from central government and a drop in income due to the recession, the first £6 million of savings which were approved by the Cabinet include 40 potential full-time job losses, though the exact roles are not identified.

However, councillor Simon Clement Jones, cabinet member for finance and customer focused services at the council, stressed that the budget would still find a place for the new recycling service.

And, he added: "We will deliver on our priorities, and we will do that whilst living within our means."

Service changes

The recycling service changes, which are expected to be introduced by winter 2010, will see the blue bin currently used for paper and card being reallocated to plastics, cans and glass, while paper and card are collected in a new box. And, the green bin used for garden waste will be replaced by hessian sacks.

The strategy reveals that, by introducing the changes, it aims to increase residents' satisfaction with their kerbside collection service, as well as working towards achieving a 45% recycling rate by 2015.

It also aims to be able to send bottom ash from Sheffield's Energy Recovery Facility, which is run by Veolia, to a reprocessing facility in the city rather than to landfill by 2013, as well as exploring the possibility of developing a commercial-dedicated recycling site by 2013.

The strategy also includes a number of other actions focused on waste reduction, with the aim of reducing the city's household waste by 2% a year between now and 2014, including:

• Implementing a waste reduction plan, working with the third sector to achieve the city's waste reduction goals;
• Using a 'Buy It Naked Sheffield' campaign to encourage supermarkets to reduce packaging and allow shoppers to recycle unnecessary packaging at source;
• Targeted information campaigns for schools and communities;
• Reducing council waste and buying recycled and recyclables products;
• Collect data on business waste and then establish a strategy for dealing with it.

And, it aims to reduce waste to landfill, by a range of measures covering everything from maximising the carbon saving it can make when using the city's Energy Recovery Facility to providing facilities for small WEEE and batteries recycling.