LAWR

GREEN WASTE Green waste charging conundrum Birmingham City Council provoked negative headlines when newspapers reported that some residents objected to its garden waste charge and it had to clear dumped bags in the streets. It raised the question whether authorities should be charging or providing the service for free. Liz Gyekye explores further. uring 2000/1, the Government set local authorities manda- tory weight-based recycling targets. It put pressure on councils to divert as much waste from landfill as possible. Many councils took the decision to boost their recycling rates by sepa- rately collecting garden waste. This simple step helped councils to increase their capture rates from households, up to 200kg a year with some, and money from Defra made a free waste collec- tion service look like an easy win. And, introducing those free garden waste collections has had a significant impact on England's recycling rates. Figures from Defra's WasteDataFlow for household recycling shows that the country recycled 24.8% of garden/ food waste, equal to 278,000 tonnes, in 1996/1997. In 2000/1 when some English coun- cils introduced free garden waste collections, this increased to 28.7% (796,000 tonnes). During 2011/12, this had jumped to 40.6% (4,006,000t). Figures for 2012/13 have not yet been published by Defra. Providing for waste services can be a big chunk of a council's spend, particu- larly in the light of the Government halting mandatory weight-based recy- cling targets for local authorities in England in 2011. Unsurprisingly, in the face of budgetary restraints some councils have opted to introduce charges and encourage home com- posting. Under the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992, councils are permit- ted to charge their residents for bulky and garden waste. But it gives no indication of a maximum or minimum amount that councils can impose on their residents. WRAP figures show that 36% of councils in England are now charging their residents to collect garden waste. The levy, which can cost up to £120 a year, is not imposed by authorities in Scotland or Northern Ireland, which have retained free collections. There are major differences in the amounts of waste collected between councils offering free collections and those offering charged services. Waste collection authorities (WCAs) offering a charged service for green waste collected on average 799 kg per household (total waste arisings), while those offering a free collection picked up an average of 880 kg of waste a year, 9.1% more, figures from Defra's WasteDataFlow show. For WCAs, this equates to picking up an extra 11,000 tonnes of material a year on average. Birmingham City Council recently hit the headlines for introducing a £35 charge for their garden waste col- lections in February. Despite a dedi- cated communications campaign, only 37,000 of the city's 400,000 households signed up for the service and the coun- cil ended up having to collect garden waste from residents who had not signed up for the service. Speaking about the issue of switch- ing to a charged service, a Birmingham City Council spokesman says: "The decision to charge for green waste helps to protect other front-line ser- vices because we would have needed to find £2.5m of savings from elsewhere in the council's budget if we had car- ried on subsidising the old service's collection costs. "This is the first year of the new chargeable service, so we are currently in a transitional period from the old to the new scheme. As with any new service it takes time for residents to get used to it. However, despite wide- spread publicity about the new service, including writing to every household as part of the council tax billing pro- cess this March, it is clear that not every household has got the message and some have continued to put out their green waste for collection. "In this transitional year we need to think about those residents who have paid for the new collection service, but also about maintaining the cleanliness of local neighbourhoods where resi- dents either haven't got the message or have decided to ignore it. "We are looking at a limited response in this transitional period and we will continue to reinforce the message that the free collection service has now 12 Local Authority Waste & Recycling July 2014 D July 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 13 GREEN WASTE stopped and that the dumping of green waste is an offence." Lib Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley John Hemming says he is con- sidering legal action against the coun- cil. He says: "It was a mistake to bring in this charge. There are people who cannot compost their green waste who are also dependent on state benefits and don't have transport. Hence they are in a position where they cannot resolve their problems themselves. It is not surprising that many people are protesting with an act of civil diso- bedience with bags of green waste." Charging for garden waste creates a host of unintended consequences. For example, residents may stop using their brown bins entirely and shove the grass cuttings in their black bins, espe- cially now that some local authorities are now closing civic amenity sites. There is also the issue of bin capac- ity, as residents may not have enough space to squash their garden waste into a 240L bin over a busy, gardening sum- mer period. Another model that councils provide is a free garden waste service within a limited time frame. Luton Borough Council offers a service from March to November for free. Northumberland collect during the same period but charge £24. There are no collections from both authorities in December, January or February due to the limited amount of garden waste produced. Hull City Council is one authority that has decided to stick to offering a free garden service for its residents. A spokeswoman says its kerbside collec- tion service for garden waste is "easy and convenient" for residents to par- ticipate in and ensures that waste bins are not overfilled on collection days. According to council leaders, this is particularly important in a city like Hull with low car ownership with some households having limited access to the council's three household waste recycling centres. Implementing a chargeable service for garden waste in a city with high levels of depriva- tion is also likely to have an adverse impact on recycling rates, she claims. She also asserts that recycling schemes are seen as one of the most visible ele- ments for frontline services offered by the council to residents and one of the key services for which residents pay council tax. However, the spokeswoman also acknowledges the downsides of offer- ing a free service. She adds: "There is obviously the collection costs associ- ated with kerbside collection of garden waste. If garden waste collection was chargeable, it is highly likely...that a number of residents would opt out and there would be an associated saving on collection costs." In the age of tight budgets, councils across the country will be looking to make savings, and garden waste can be a good place to start. However, it may be difficult to switch to a charged col- lection. It is clear that it is not black and white when it comes to charging for garden waste and it will be down to individual authorities to judge whether or not they charge for this non-statuto- ry service. " It is not surprising that many people are protesting with an act of civil disobedience with bags of green waste. " Operate a garden waste scheme Charge for garden waste scheme England 95% 36% Wales 95% 32% Scotland 84% 0% Northern Ireland 85% 0% UK 93% 31% Percentage of local authorities operating garden waste collections 2012/13

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