Cardiff council is asking for views on potential changes to waste services in the city, including lobbying the government for the power to introduce pay as you throw charges.
Other options being consulted on as part of the councils 25-year waste strategy include monthly residual waste collections, clear bags for general waste, kerbside sort recycling collections and commingled recycling collections.
The council currently runs its weekly commingled recycling collections, weekly food waste collections and alternating fortnightly residual and garden waste collections in-house.
However, the council states in the consultation that it needs to make extremely serious savings of 125 million over the next three years as well as meeting statutory Welsh Government targets for recycling of 58% by 2015/16 rising to 70% by 2024/25. Cardiffs recycling rate currently stands at 52%.
Any council that fails to meet the targets could face a fine and Cardiff said such fines would add to its already serious financial pressures.
The council said: Waste services need to improve, but new ways of funding and reducing costs have to be found.
The Future of waste and recycling in Cardiff consultation launched yesterday (October 1) and closes on November 24 2013. The findings will be used to inform Cardiffs new waste strategy, which is set to be published in 2014.
Options
‘We are working with the Welsh Government to design a service that can meet expected demands for waste minimisation, reuse, recycling and diversion from landfill for the next 25 years’
Ashley Govier, Cardiff council cabinet member for the environment
As well as charging for residual waste collections, the council has also put forward the option of charging for the provision of waste bags and wheeled bins. Such charges are allowed under UK law and the council says there is nothing to say that making a charge for wheeled bins or black bags for residual waste has a negative impact on the amount recycling.
Additionally, the consultation includes the options of reducing wheeled waste bin sizes from 240 litres to 140 litres, limiting the number of black bags that can be put out in collection day and introducing clear bags for residual waste in order to encourage residents to recycle more.
Among the options put forward to increase recycling are: separate boxes for dry kerbside sort collections to reduce contamination; to separate glass from other recyclables at the kerbside; and to offer wheeled bins for comingled collections.
The council is also considering charging for green waste collections, while it seeking views on other possible waste service changes, such as weekly hygiene collections of nappies and incontinence pads and advice for residents on waste minimisation.
Cardiff council cabinet member for environment, Ashley Govier, said: We are working with the Welsh Government to design a service that can meet expected demands for waste minimisation, reuse, recycling and diversion from landfill for the next 25 years. This work will also help us to write the next waste strategy as it will give us good data on the cost of providing services, the likely recycling performance and also tell us how sustainable our future services will be.
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Pay as you throw
Pay as you throw schemes, which operate in the likes of Sweden and the Republic of Ireland, involve households being charged by weight for the amount of residual waste they away.
However, such charges are not permitted under UK law and such charges could only be introduced through a change in national legislation, and Defra has recently said it has no desire to implement such schemes in the UK.
It is believed by some in the waste industry that charges and less frequent collections of residual waste help to encourage recycling by making waste disposal as difficult and restrictive as possible.
LARAC
In 2010, LARAC called on the government to give councils more powers to charge for waste and recycling services and to fine residents for failing to recycle (see letsrecycle.com story).
Vice chair and policy support officer at the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC), Andrew Bird, told letsrecycle.com that the UK should be considering various options for waste prevention amid council budget cuts including pay as you throw schemes.
He said: As a nation we should be looking at waste prevention very, very seriously and that has to be the core of anybodys plans going forward. There are a number of different strategies for that and pay as you throw; is one of those options, but there are many other options that should be considered.
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