Bristol targets trade waste under Localism powers

The South West local authority has said it plans to make use of a clause within the Localism Bill called the General Power of Competence.

This would give councils more power to introduce individual measures which will benefit their community or generate efficiency or financial savings unless they are specifically prohibited by government.

Using the clause, Bristol intends to issue very accurate estimates rather than precise figures on household waste arisings to the government waste database, WasteDataFlow.

The council claims that the existing reporting system is complicated and acts as a disincentive for local authorities to collect trade waste at the same time as household waste.

This is because adding business waste collected alongside household waste to its waste arisings under the current reporting system would put Bristol in danger of penalties under the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme (LATS).

LATS limits the amount of biodegradable waste a council can landfill each year based on the amount of biodegradable waste produced in 1995. Therefore, adding an increased amount of biodegradable material collected via the business waste stream would distort Bristols baseline.

Collections

Commenting on the proposed scheme, Councillor Gary Hopkins, executive member of waste, told letsrecycle.com: We were essentially measuring things that were completely unnecessary to measure. We had to tell them [WasteDataFlow] exactly how much of our waste stream was commercial and how much was residential.

Now, if we are going along a street in the city centre street where we are collecting from flats above the shops but not the shops, then that is inefficient.

Cllr Hopkins said that the move would benefit small businesses in the city that are currently not catered for by large waste management firms.

And, he added that the council would carry out a thorough assessment of businesses seeking to have waste collected by Bristol. This would allow Bristol to take an accurate estimate of the amount of business waste being collected from commercial premises alongside the domestic streams.

Support

Furthermore, Cllr Hopkins said that the proposal had received tacit support from energy secretary Chris Huhne, while communities minister Bob Neill also offered a show of support following an exchange of correspondence between the council and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The council said that Mr Neill had explained that the current method of waste reporting would be assessed under the ongoing review of existing waste policy, with the government expected to publish its findings at the end of May.

Bristol claims that collecting business waste in the same vehicles as household waste will enable it to carry out fewer collection rounds.

Collection contract

And, the potential for household and business waste collections in a one-pass vehicle is being factored into the tender process for the city councils waste collection contract, which is set to come into effect from November 2011.

Under the contract, a successor to SITA UK which currently holds the contract will need to make the provision to collect business waste alongside household waste if the council wishes.

The city council said that the move to collect business waste alongside household waste is set to be complemented by projected decreases in waste arisings across the city under its medium term zero waste to landfill pledge (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Localism Bill was first unveiled in December 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) and has currently reached the Report Stage in the House of Commons in its passage to becoming law. However, a date for this next step has not yet been set.