Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/23/100) on the impact of new policy and legislation on managing municipal waste, attached.
An Impact Assessment has been prepared for the attention of Members and is attached and available at Waste management legislative changes - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk)
Decision:
RESOLVED
(a) that the requirement to make changes to operations at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) in response to forthcoming changes in waste management legislation and Environment Agency requirements be approved;
(b) that the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport and Director of Finance and Public Value in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities and Equality be given delegated authority to make any operational changes required at the HWRCs to comply with the changes in legislation and Environment Agency requirements and to mitigate costs including the development of a QR system and restriction of certain wastes at nominated sites; and
(c) note the Collection & Packaging Reforms and the potential impact this may have on municipal waste management services in Devon in the future.
Minutes:
(Councillors Biederman, Brazil, Dewhirst and Whitton attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).
The Cabinet considered the Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/23/100) on the impact of new policy and legislation on managing municipal waste, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.
The Report set out the Government changes in waste legislation and Environment Agency requirements that would impact on how waste would need to be managed at Devon’s network of Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC’s) to achieve compliance whilst mitigating costs. It also outlined the Collection and Packaging Reforms in England.
The proposals related to HWRC’s in terms of Government wanting all householders to be able to deposit a small amount of DIY waste free of charge at HWRC’s and had introduced legislation (The Controlled Waste (England and Wales((Amendment)(England) Regulations 2023) to effect this change from 31st December 2023.
Devon would now need to allow small amounts of DIY waste to be accepted free of charge which would increase the cost of providing the HWRC service. Then existing legal definition of Household Waste did not include materials from the repair or improvement of houses i.e. Construction and Demolition (DIY) home improvement types of waste.
Government had stated this will not be subject to New Burdens and as such the County Council would need to cover the additional costs.
The second matter related to the management of waste upholstered domestic seating. The Cabinet noted that the Persistent Organic Pollutant (POPS) Regulations 2007 placed strict controls on managing waste containing POPS such that all material must be sent for incineration to ensure that the chemicals were destroyed. This included waste upholstered domestic seating which included sofas and soft furnishings.
All residual waste from Devon’s HWRCs was sent to the Devonport Combined Heat & Power Energy from Waste Facility and POPS waste was currently mixed with other residual waste on all HWRC sites. However, the Environment Agency were currently insisting that waste containing POPs must be segregated from other waste at the HWRCs by December 2024 at the latest. As some sites were physically too small to undertake this work, it was anticipated that only a limited number of sites would be able to accept waste upholstered domestic seating in the future.
There were likely to be other changes required at HWRCs with regards to accepting tyres and potentially some types of wood in the future. Details were currently unclear, but it may require some restrictions on how these materials were managed, hence the reason for seeking a delegation to the Director in order to make any operational changes required to comply with the changes in legislation and other requirements as well as to mitigate costs including the development of a QR system and restriction of certain wastes at nominated sites.
Government were also moving ahead with delivering their Collection & Packaging Reforms which formed a key part of their Resource & Waste Management Strategy 2018 (Resources and waste strategy for England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) which was a set of waste reforms that would deliver a consistent waste collection service across England.
‘Simpler Recycling’ set out the requirements to collect glass, paper, cardboard, metals, cartons and some plastics from the kerbside along with offering a separate weekly food waste collection to all households by March 2026. Plastic films would need to be collected by March 2027. District Councils would have to offer the same recycling service as households to non domestic properties that they collected household waste from by March 2025. Government had indicated they wished all households to have at least a fortnightly residual waste collection service.
Implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) was proceeding and from October 2025 producers would need to meet the full net costs of managing the packaging of their products and work was ongoing to determine what those payments would be and how they would be made to Local Authorities.
Government plans were also being progressed to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) from 2025 or beyond for all drinks containers that were either steel or aluminium cans and PET plastic bottles up to 3 litres in size. Details of how this would be implemented and the potential impact on waste collection services was still being developed but it was currently unclear how District Councils would be able to cover the costs of managing drink containers that remained within the kerbside collections.
An Impact Assessment had been prepared for the attention of Members and had been circulated with the agenda. It was also available at Waste management legislative changes - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk). It was noted that the proposals outlined in the Report were in response to Government & Environment Agency requirements and would apply to all residents of the Council’s administrative area.
Risks were present in the proposals in terms of the financial impact and uncertainty of some of the legislative changes & EA requirements. However, there was no option but to comply and try to mitigate as much as possible the potential operational or financial impacts.
The matter having been debated and the other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability and carbon impact, risk management, equality and legal considerations and alignment with the Council’s Strategic Plan) as set out in the Director’s Report having been considered:
it was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and
RESOLVED
(a) that the requirement to make changes to operations at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) in response to forthcoming changes in waste management legislation and Environment Agency requirements be approved;
(b) that the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport and Director of Finance and Public Value in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities and Equality be given delegated authority to make any operational changes required at the HWRCs to comply with the changes in legislation and Environment Agency requirements and to mitigate costs including the development of a QR system and restriction of certain wastes at nominated sites; and
(c) note the Collection & Packaging Reforms and the potential impact this may have on municipal waste management services in Devon in the future.
Supporting documents: