The county has one of the highest quantities of waste per household in the country – costing the council an estimated £35 million a year to collect and dispose of. This equates to 6% of the council’s budget.
The strategy sets out a target to reduce household waste on a per household basis by 20% by 2030 – using the quantity produced in 2013 as a baseline.
In 2013, 1160 kg of waste was collected per household per annum. This would set the target at 928 kg per household by 2030.
Shropshire has said that this reduction will remove approximately 26,700 tonnes of waste from the waste system and result in savings of £1 million for the council.
The county experiences good recycling and composting levels, although there has been a plateau in recent years with outturns usually sitting between 50% to 55% of waste diverted from landfill and incineration.
Recommendations for reducing waste
The strategy linked Shropshire’s high quantity of total waste to a comparatively large quantity of garden waste – 50% higher than similar authorities. Residual wase in Shropshire is comparable to the national average.
A charge for garden waste collection is due to be implemented in October 2024 with the intention of encouraging the public to reduce the volume it produces.
Households can subscribe to garden waste collections for £56 per year per garden bin up to a maximum of three. The subscription covers the period from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 (12 months).
Notably, the council website added: “As we can’t charge for food waste collections these will need to be suspended from 1 October 2024 whilst we develop and introduce a new weekly service from April 2026.”
In total, the strategy makes recommendations for action in 10 areas and notes that a booking system for the HWRC is also due to be introduced in October.
Other actions include reviewing the communications approach, developing community delivery and exploring the case for a dedicated role to develop and deliver waste prevention initiatives.
The strategy also noted that while the council is not responsible for the collection of business waste, some illegally enters the household waste system.
Timeline to the Shropshire Waste Minimisation Strategy
Three years ago, the Green Party – currently the third biggest party on the council – identified that Shropshire was producing the highest volume of waste per person in mainland England. This was despite it ranking in the top 50 recycling rates in England.
At the time the Greens proposed a Waste Minimisation Strategy which would include a target to reduce waste arisings per person by 25% by 2025, but this was rejected.
In December 2023, the council unanimously agreed to a new Green Party motion to introduce a Waste Minimisation Strategy by September this year.
Green party councillor Julian Dean commented: “…the Tory administration is undermining this work by now proposing to implement green waste charges they said they previously said they opposed, but without any strategy, policy or plan to help residents manage waste better.
“To make matters worse the double whammy of an imposition of permits on the civic amenity sites will debar anyone without internet access and inevitably lead to fly tipping which they have not budgeted for – nor do they have any plan to combat. It is also a concern that although 18,000 people responded to the consultation on this, less than 2,000 were considered in the report to Cabinet.
“As they include many qualitative issues it is a very retrograde step that the Council is not considering all the views of all residents who responded to its consultation”.
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