In a best value report, which looked at Stoke-on-Trent's waste and recycling services, the inspectors concluded that the council's service is good and is likely to improve. The Audit Commission gave the service two stars because the service is above average in most areas and is showing improvement in recycling, but they said that progress is limited by the lack of a kerbside collection.
The “Dealing with Waste” review looked at domestic, commercial and clinical waste collection, bulky waste collection, street cleansing, waste disposal (including the waste to energy plant and the civic amenity sites), recycling bring sites and abandoned vehicles. The budget for these services for 2001/02 is 9 million. Refuse collection and street cleansing are provided in-house, employ 152 staff and cover around 108,000 properties a week. The council also has several external contracts including those for managing the recycling centres, civic amenity sites and the waste to energy plant.
The inspectors said: “The council is making progress with recycling but, without a kerbside collection, the potential for further improvement is limited.” The council's recycling performance has improved from 7.05% in 1997/8 to 12.6% in 2000/01. However composting accounts for 5.6% of this, which shows that there is scope for improvement.
But the council is looking at this and is working in partnership with Staffordshire County Council and the other eight district and borough councils in the area to develop a Joint Municipal Waste Strategy. Joint planned actions include kerbside collection for recycling in partnership with neighbouring councils, additional composting sites and two additional civic amenity sites and waste transfer sites.
The council currently operates 77 bring sites and two CA sites, which have recycling rates of about 50%. And it introduced wood recycling at one site last year, which has increased recycling rates to over 70%. But due to the closure of a third CA site, there has been additional pressure on them, but a tender for a new site has been awarded and a new site will be built within the next 12 months. The inspectors noted that customer satisfaction with the CA sites is high at 84%.
The council's composting service is comprehensive and the council composts the green waste it receives at its CA sites and offers subsidised compost bin schemes to local residents. In 2001, the council increased the number of compost bins supplied to householders to 3,000 and has worked with the Probation Service to produce wooden compost units using recycled pallets. The council charges residents for collecting garden waste in special sacks (30p per sack) to encourage them to compost or take the waste to
the CA sites.
But the commission found weaknesses with the council’s service which included that there was no limit on the amount of refuse taken away from households and no target for waste minimisation. They also found problems with recycling centres including inadequate signs to the sites; out of date signs at the sites; and a lack of information relating to amounts recycled at each of the sites, although the council is working on this.
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