Waste and Recycling
The Assistant Director Environmental Services will give a presentation on Waste and Recycling in Cherwell District.
Decision:
Resolved
(1) That the Waste and Recycling presentation be noted.
Minutes:
The Assistant Director Environmental Services gave a presentation on Waste and Recycling within the Cherwell District and explained how waste was sorted, collected and distributed to the relevant disposal centres.
The Assistant Director Environmental Services explained that a National Resources and Waste Strategy was published in December 2018 to create consistent collections schemes. The Strategy included proposals for a deposit return scheme, which would reduce the value of waste and increase gate fees. It also included proposals for a weekly collection of food waste. Food waste would be collected separately and taken to an anaerobic digester where a biogas would be produced and used to produce heat, electricity or transport fuels.
In response to questions from the Committee, the Assistant Director Environmental Services explained that the type of recyclable waste collected was changing, with more single use plastics and less newspapers being discarded due to changing lifestyles.
In response to Members’ comments regarding the amount of fuel the Council’s collection vehicles consumed, the Assistant Director Environmental Services assured the committee that the collection vehicles used existing technology to minimise the amount of fuel used. Electric collection vehicles were some way off from being widely available on the market, fully tested for performance and financially affordable but all small vans in the fleet were now electric. Environmental services kept up-to-date with developing technology and would be aware when more economical and environmentally friendly vehicles were brought to the market.
Resolved
(1) That the Waste and Recycling presentation be noted.