At a previous meeting of the Committee Members discussed the possibility of becoming a plastic free District and requested that the Group Manager attend to discuss options for this, as well as school education and what is currently being done.
Minutes:
At a previous meeting of the Committee, Members had discussed the possibility of becoming a plastic free District and requested that the Group Manager attend to discuss options for this, as well as school education and to outline what was currently being done.
The Group Manager for Street Scene and Open Spaces provided the Committee with the following information:
· Plastic collected from kerbside boxes in terms of tonnage had been 103.27 in 2014/15; this had increased to 714.90 in 2017/18.
· Following a sample of 200 households residual waste the following had been found for Mid Devon:
o A significant amount of food waste of over 20%
o Paper 10.8%
o Mixed plastic 7.6%
· Of this residual waste sample 40% of the contents had been found to be recyclable or compostable through the existing scheme which equated to 55,000 tonnes across Devon.
· The Committee were referred to information in relation to Plastic Free Community Leaders, one of which was Plastic Free Coastlines, which promoted and supported Plastic free communities and was extended to non-coastline areas.
· ‘Refill Devon’ which was a practical campaign aimed at stemming the tide of single-use plastic.
· Waste education in school was chiefly provided by Devon County Council who took the lead using a company called Resource Futures. Nine waste education visits (workshops) were completed in Mid Devon primary schools between April 2017 and March 2018. This number had reduced last year when a charge was introduced. Waste Educators also worked in secondary schools. At present there was nothing specifically around plastics in the environment but there was a new workshop which schools could book called ‘Wild Waste Walks, which focussed on ocean litter and involved children getting out and about in the school grounds, culminating in a litter pick or beach clean.
Discussion took place regarding:
· Plastic materials would not be rejected by the recycling collection teams if they were not spotless but half-filled containers with leftover food would be.
· The ‘Any Bin Will Do’ campaign which had been a recommendation of the Street Cleansing Service review which was aimed to give people more opportunities to get rid of waste. Also a trial had begun to have one bin in each town, one side of the bin for recycling and one side for general waste.
· It had not been possible to use ‘pay back community groups’ to help with litter collections as there were a lot of restrictions about the facilities they needed whilst they worked although the Council was happy to look at this again.
· The steps involved in the processing of plastic.
· China had brought in tighter regulations on accepting foreign waste/recyclable material. While the Council always used European processors, this policy decision by China has affected global market prices for various types of recyclable material. The price for plastic was starting to recover but prices for cardboard had been heavily affected.
· Companies selling takeaway cups were now more keen to make a cup that was re-useable or compostable and they were taking a more proactive approach as a reaction to national criticism.
· The Council had taken a decision not to provide more bins at the current time although these could be purchased by Town and Parish Councils if it matched the criteria in the policy.
· It was confirmed that with the operation of the new transfer station, it was expected that, as from the end of May, there would be no Mid Devon waste going to landfill. Residual waste would go to the ‘Waste to Energy’ plant in Exeter. It was anticipated that other Devon authorities would follow suit in due course.