The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Joint Waste Management Strategy Partnership which includes Cambridge and Peterborough City Councils, Cambridgeshire County Council and district councils of South Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Fenland carried out a consultation last summer which asked for the public's views on recycling. More than 290,000 homes were sent a questionnaire entitled: “Rubbish! What should WE do with it?” and six workshops were held to gain an insight into public opinion. The council has now drawn up a strategy which reflects the views of the residents.
Three clear messages came out of the public consultation:
- Increased education and awareness is essential if waste in the region is to be dealt with effectively
- More than two-thirds of householders were in favour of a kerbside collection of recyclable material, including green waste
- 66% of respondents were in favour of an integrated solution for waste disposal which could, for example, be either thermal treatment with energy recovery or a biogas plant
The councils in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough said that they would not adopt “a decide and defend” strategy and the waste strategy is now in the process of being approved by all the councils. Strategy co-ordinator Bernard Warr plans to hold follow-up workshops to tell the participants how their views were reflected in the strategy.
Impact
Mr Warr said: “This is the first time I have known anyone to go back to the community and tell them what impact their views had regarding waste issues. When we held our public consultation, the participants made it clear that they wanted to know the outcome and maintain contact. The partner councils are very keen that this should happen and I feel that this is the right way of maintaining contact with citizens who are prepared to help.”
In addition to the workshops, a leaflet will be delivered to homes in the region outlining the community view on waste management and will show how this has influenced the waste strategy.
The workshops showed that members of the public are keen to participate in forums and these will now take place on a regular basis with the aim to increase public awareness of recycling and to look at ways of moving recycling forward.
The waste strategy will concentrate on increasing recycling and composting as both the councils and public have said that they prefer recycling to energy from waste. Mr Warr said: “The strategy partners have considerable reservations about the acceptability of conventional mass-burn incineration and intend to pursue this only as a last resort.”
Householders in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough achieved a recycling rate of just under 20% in 2000/01 and with the new strategy aim to hit 33% by 2003/04 and 60% by 2020. The waste strategy includes plans for two new household waste recycling centres. There are currently 11 recycling centres in the area and these have achieved a 53% recycling rate. The strategy hopes to achieve a 65% recycling rate in 2003/04 by increasing the types of materials collected at the sites and this will include an emphasis on recycling timber. Facilities at recycling sites will also be improved and the county council plans to introduce a bonus incentive scheme, which will encourage site operators to separate more materials.
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