Service cuts could have “knock on” effect for WDAs

Steve Burdis claimed that a current lack of recycling targets for waste collection authorities meant that, with budgets for 2010/11 under consideration, they were looking at the possibility of cutting back on services such as food waste collections.

And, he called on government to make it clearer to councils exactly how much of their budget should be spent on waste and recycling services, and to provide drivers to ensure they had an incentive to continue improving their recycling rates.

Mr Burdis explained that waste collection authorities were looking “at economising across waste services at a time when waste disposal authorities are looking for them to invest because of LATS”, due to not having similar targets to aim towards.

“I have heard of waste collection authorities cutting, or thinking about cutting, food waste services and that has a knock-on effect for the UK and waste disposal authorities in terms of meeting LATS targets,” he said.

“Because they don't have those drivers they can take that decision, it could set authorities against each other,” he added, noting that, when he had heard of councils looking to cut services, there had been an “inference” that to keep them going, they should be funded by disposal authorities.

Transparency

Claiming that the problem was partly down to national policy not being “aligned” to ensure that collection authorities had actual recycling targets to meet, Mr Burdis also called for action from central government to ensure there was “transparency” in what public money was meant to spent on.

Councils currently receive waste funding as part of a package known as EPCS, or environmental protection and cultural services, which also covers areas such as libraries, regeneration and community services.

“There's no breakdown which says 'this is for waste', there's no transparency as to how much the budget is for waste,” Mr Burdis said, adding that “transparency is one control government needs to look at”.

Joint-working

Mr Burdis stressed that, to address potential cut-backs it was “absolutely essential” that disposal and collection authorities work together.

“It can be fractious and difficult but what is essential is that waste management problems can't be solved in isolation, it can only be served with proper, integrated, joint working,” he said.

The importance of councils working together was also highlighted by Alice Roberts, programme manager for local authority support body the Waste Improvement Network, who stressed that, while it might be “understandable” for a WCA not to run services, it should only happen after “close consultation” with a disposal authority.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Ms Roberts claimed that financial pressures on councils were most likely to prompt the introduction of charging for services, such as garden waste, the introduction of measures such as no side-waste policies and changing the frequency of their collections.

And, she added: “Many councils won't collect green [waste], but whether that has any impact with waste disposal authorities is debatable.”

Cost savings

Over the past few months, a number of councils have introduced or announced new collection services which they claim will offer them cost savings, including the London borough of Bexley (see letsrecycle.com story), and Exeter city council – which said it would save £100,000 a year by moving more households to alternate weekly collections (see letsrecycle.com story).

At the end of last month, Wirral metropolitan borough council revealed that it had worked with contractor Biffa to introduce restructured collection rounds from Monday (November 16), which would offer both environmental and cost benefits.

And, with councils in the process of setting their budgets for 2010/11, Norfolk county council unveiled proposals to close one of its household waste recycling centres and move five others to part time opening hours, in a move which it said would save it £225,000 a year.

However, the council stressed that the site earmarked for closure, at Docking, was it's “least-used” site, and the savings would be almost offset by the £200,000 running costs for the £1 million recycling centre at Dereham that it hopes to open next October.