After declaring a climate emergency in 2019, the council is updating its waste and litter strategy this year and the climate scrutiny panel will meet next week to discuss which proposals to include.
A report which will go before the committee proposed making recycling mandatory, adding that if a resident persisted in not recycling, the council could “encourage participation through formal enforcement”.
The report pointed to other local authorities which have made recycling compulsory, including Islington, Mid Devon and Swindon, though no local authority is thought ever to have issued fines.
The final litter strategy will be finalised by the council’s cabinet in April.
Councillor Sarah Warren, cabinet member for climate emergency, said: “As a council we want to lead the way and become carbon neutral through a raft of measures, including increased use of electric vehicles and the introduction of a carbon literacy programme for staff and reducing waste by, for example, encouraging recycling and discouraging the use of single-use plastics.”
Other measures set out in the report include updating city centre collections to increase recycling, focusing on boosting food waste and “raising the importance of reuse”.
Cleaner and greener
Bath & North East Somerset council says its updated resources, waste and litter strategy is to focus on “making our neighbourhoods cleaner and greener” and a key aspect of the strategy is making recycling the norm.
The council says it acknowledges that for local authorities such as Islington, Mid Devon and Swindon, it is the promotion of legislation and the possibility that fines could be issued – rather than actually fining anyone – which drove tangible successes.
“Calling a service compulsory itself generated a huge change in behaviour towards recycling,” the report says.
It has been proposed that the system by which residents would be fined would be a multiple stage enforcement process, allowing several opportunities to correct behaviour before a fixed penalty notice is issued.
Bath
Bath & North East Somerset council has set a target of 68% recycling by 2030, higher than the government’s own target of 65%.
With an estimated population of around 190,000 people, Liberal Democrat-controlled Bath & North East Somerset had a recycling rate of 58.7% for the 2018/19 financial year, higher than the national average of 45.1%.
However, the council says it knows 18% of people in the area do not recycle anything at all. And, it says 26% of black bin waste is food waste, more than half of the recyclable waste currently sent to landfill.
The council says it is placing an emphasis on increasing the number of households that recycle their food waste, rather than sending it to landfill.
Register for free to comment