Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made by Members at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel held on 12 September 2023 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Director of Environment and Community Services will be in attendance to provide the Panel with information relating to Waste Services by way of an introduction to its new Scrutiny topic of ‘Waste Management’.

Recommendation: That the information provided, and subsequent discussion, be noted and that the Panel considers its key lines of enquiry and next steps for the review.

G Field, Director of Environment and Community Services was in attendance at the meeting to provide an introduction to the Panel’s new scrutiny topic of Waste Management. 

The purpose of the presentation on Waste Services was to set the scene for the new scrutiny review and for the Panel to determine the next steps for the review in terms of evidence gathering.

The Panel heard that there were two key areas within Waste Management:-

·        Waste collection

·        Waste disposal

Waste was disposed of in various ways, according to type.  Household residual waste was disposed of through the incinerator (Energy from Waste Plant) at Haverton Hill, however, the facility was coming to the end of its working life and this would have serious implications for the Council, not least budget implications and pressures.

Recycling waste was disposed of through a variety of outlets, depending upon the material to be recycled, and green waste was sent for composting.

In relation to fly-tipped waste, it was noted that sometimes different vehicles had to be sent to collect the waste so it was not always collected in one go.  This was due to the different types of materials that could make up the waste having to be disposed of at different outlets, for example, mattresses had to be collected separately for recycling. 

Residual waste was defined as being household waste that was leftover after everything else had been recycled.

In Middlesbrough, residual waste was collected on a weekly basis and this had been facilitated some years ago by moving to smaller wheeled bins and utilising full sized wheeled bins for co-mingled recycling waste.  Very few local authorities in England now carried out weekly residual waste collections, with the majority operating on a fortnightly collection basis, and monthly collections in Wales.

Initially, the provision of smaller residual waste bins in Middlesbrough combined with the provision of a full-sized wheeled bin for recycling, had seen a jump in recycling rates from around 25% to 33%.  This had now slightly reduced and plateaued at between 30 to 33%.

As previously mentioned, residual waste was disposed of at the Haverton Hill incinerator.  The facility was originally built by Cleveland County Council but the contract would be ending in 2025/26.  The Tees Valley local authorities were currently in a joint procurement exercise for a new facility to be built.

At present, Middlesbrough sent around 43.5 thousand tonnes of waste per year to be incinerated at the Haverton Hill plant, meaning Middlesbrough sent very little waste to landfill.

In terms of kerbside recycling, around 10 thousand tonnes per annum were collected in Middlesbrough which equated to a recycling rate of around 30 to 33%, although recycling rates from areas with communal bins in alleyways was generally not good. 

Redcar and Cleveland Council currently had the best recycling rates of the North East Councils at approximately 38.7%, however, this had fallen from more than 40%.  Stockton Council had the lowest rate of recycling amongst the North East Councils at approximately 24-25% and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23/13

The Chair will provide a verbal update on business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 20 September 2023.

The Chair provided a verbal update in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 20 September 2023, namely: -

·        Update from the Mayor, Chris Cooke.

·        Middlesbrough Ward Boundary Review – The Head of Legal Services provided the first draft of the Council’s submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission.

·        Scrutiny Work Programmes 2023/24

·        Executive Forward Work Programme

·        Scrutiny Panels’ Chairs’ Updates.

Date of Next meeting of OSB – Wednesday, 15^th November, 4.30pm.

The next meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel was scheduled to take place on Monday, 13 November at 10.00am.