Salford city council will decide whether to join neighbouring Bury and Rochdale in rolling out the reduced-frequency residual waste service as it responds to mounting financial pressure from central government.
The council’s waste costs are projected to rise from £17.6 million to almost £18 million in 2016/17 – before jumping to £19.7 million in 2017/18.
At present, Salford operates a four-bin system for residents, with residual waste, paper and commingled recyclables collected on a fortnightly basis, and mixed organic waste collected weekly.
In a report to be presented to the council’s cabinet on Tuesday (November 24), the council outlines its plan to reduce the frequency of residual collections from fortnightly to once every three weeks. It is not expected to make changes to high rise and communal bin sites.
The change would be phased in via two pilot stages, starting in July 2016, with the roll out to cover all households in the borough from August 2017.
Savings
It is estimated the pilots will result in cost reductions to Salford’s waste levy of £470,000 in 2016/17, and a further £1 million in 2017/18.
The council envisages further savings from collection costs in 2018/19 once the new service has bedded in, including £150,000 on the removal of two vehicles. The move could also result in the reduction of a maximum of six staff – though this option has not been costed.
Salford believes it will require a marketing budget of £60,000 to communicate the changes with residents, as well as £200,000 in case of extra demand for recycling bins. This is based on the experience of Bury council which became the first English authority to roll out three-weekly collections in October 2014.
Incentives
A closed-lid and no side waste policy could also be enforced to reduce contamination at the kerbside, and the launch of a recycling award scheme made possible via a DCLG bid ‘will incentivise good recycling in communities’.
The report concludes: “Salford’s waste disposal costs will increase significantly over the next three years, if the city council does not increase recycling and reduce residual waste and others improve. Other districts are now reviewing their service and consider the next step change to avoid cost and where possible reduce costs.
“Costs of the waste disposal levy are linked to performance; as such positive performance of other authority affects the others.”
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