Municipal Waste Management Strategy – Contents
Section 1 - The Current Situation
Assessment against Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) | |
Section 1 - The Current Situation
In June 2002, the Welsh Assembly Government published the National Waste Strategy entitled “Wise about Waste”. The Strategy set out a vision of waste management in Wales in which a high priority was attached to minimising waste production and diverting waste away from landfill, and where practicable, recovering value from waste through recycling and composting and energy from waste.
Wales has relied heavily on landfill as the principal means of dealing with wastes from householders, commerce and industry. Some 1.7 million tonnes of municipal waste are produced annually in Wales. The quantities of waste are growing at a round 3 per cent a year – faster than the annual growth in GDP. If this growth in waste continues, waste arisings in Wales will double by the year 2020.
Historically Wales was seen to be behind England and most other European countries when it comes to diversion of waste from landfill. Compared against many European countries, we produce more waste per head of population and recycle less. Around 90 % of waste in Wales is landfilled compared with around 50% in France and 7% in Switzerland. Wales recycles around 10 % of its waste, while Germany recycles 52% and the Netherlands 47%. There are several reasons for this traditional reliance on landfill:
- There is an abundance of worked out quarries and other holes associated with extractive industries. This has made landfill relatively cheap and discouraged investment in alternative methods of disposal;
- There are few financial incentives in place for either business or householders to develop or seek alternatives to landfill. Landfill Tax in the UK is currently £14 per tonne, compared with, for example, £45 per tonne in the Netherlands and £34 per tonne in Denmark. As a result there is much less economic incentive to invest in alternatives to landfill;
- There has been a low level of public awareness of the growing waste problem, the benefits of managing waste effectively, and the steps everyone can take to reduce waste;
- Public hostility to waste management activities has caused difficulties and delays in obtaining planning permission for new waste facilities. Such facilities are often opposed by local people who may be concerned about noise, vermin, pollution, traffic and effect on house prices.
There are strong pressures for a fundamental change in the way we manage our wastes in Wales. These pressures mean that we must act now to start the process of change, otherwise it will be far more expensive in the long term as there will be more waste to manage. The pressures include:
- The increasing volumes of waste and the way that we have managed these wastes are causing significant and growing harm to the environment. For example, landfill produces up to 25% of UK emissions of the global warming gas, methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas (21times more powerful than carbon dioxide) that is produced when biodegradable wastes rot down in landfills;
- The EU Landfill Directive requires the UK to reduce the volume of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill by 2010, with further reductions in 2013 and 2020. Failure to meet these targets could result in fines of up to £180 million per year for the UK;
- Waste often contains valuable materials that could be re-used, recycled or used as an energy source. Disposing of them in landfill is wasteful and increases demands for extraction of non-renewable resources that could otherwise be satisfied if materials were recovered rather than tipped.
- There is growing pressure for landfill space as older sites close and sites are difficult to find due to public hostility; and
- There are significant lead times. Countries that have developed effective waste management systems have taken between 10 and 15 years to do so.
- Alternatives to landfill frequently create additional employment opportunities and economic benefits, particularly recycling which creates jobs in businesses set up to process and handle recycled raw materials.
In recognition of these pressures and opportunities, the Welsh Assembly Government has introduced the following primary targets for local authorities for the reduction, recycling and composting of municipal waste:
- Public bodies should aim to reduce their own waste arisings and by 2005 achieve a reduction in waste produced equivalent to at least 5% of the 1998 arisings figure and by 2010 achieve a reduction in waste produced equivalent to at least 10% of the 1998 arisings figure.
- Local authorities should by 2003/04 achieve at least 15% recycling/composting of municipal waste with a minimum of 5% composting and 5% recycling; by 2006/07 achieve at least 25% recycling/composting of municipal waste with a minimum of 10% composting and 10% recycling; by 2009/10 and beyond achieve at least 40% recycling/composting with a minimum of 15% composting and 15% recycling.
- Improved segregation of hazardous household waste where by 2003/04 all household waste amenity sites should have facilities to receive and store, prior to proper disposal, bonded asbestos sheets. All sites should also have facilities for receiving and storing, prior to recycling, oils, paints, solvents, fluorescent light bulbs and batteries.
Local Authorities have also been set further ‘secondary’ targets to minimise their own waste, and to help educate the public to secure a reduction in the amounts of municipal waste equivalent as follows:
Minimising the Authority’s Own Waste
- by 2005, re-use or recycle at least 75% of C&D waste produced; and
- by 2010, re-use or recycle at least 85% of C&D waste produced.
- By 2009/10 (and to apply beyond) waste arisings per household should be no greater than those (for Wales) in 1997/98; and
- by 2020, waste arisings per person should be less than 300kg per annum.
To help Local Authorities meet the various targets, and to ensure that where appropriate, they work together in partnership with other Authorities, the community sector and business, the Assembly Government has asked each Authority to produce a Municipal Waste Management Strategy setting out what the Authority intends to do, what targets it is aiming to set and how it will deliver its plans.
Bridgend County Borough Council has responded to this request and this document sets out the Council’s Strategy in relation to the development of waste management policies, targets and resources within the Borough for the period 2003 – 2010. This Strategy also incorporates (a) the Council’s Recycling Plan, which is a statutory document that the Council is required to produce under s.49 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and (b) the Council’s Litter Plan.
The Strategy is structured into three principal Chapters. This first Chapter sets out the current situation in the Borough, including a brief description of the area and how municipal waste is currently dealt with and how this compares against the Welsh targets for recycling/composting. Chapter 2 then sets out proposals for future development of waste management, including how the Council will identify and respond to specific concerns of local communities, how it will ensure that wastes are managed with minimum adverse effect upon the environment, and what specific policies, objectives and targets will be used to develop services and measure future progress against. The final Chapter then goes on to look at how the Strategy will be developed and delivered, including a detailed plan for implementation of changes required under the Strategy and how these changes will be managed and resourced.
Description of the Bridgend area
Figure 1 Location Map
The County Borough of Bridgend is located equidistance between Swansea and Cardiff on the coastal plain of South Wales (Figure 1). It enjoys a variety of landscape and topography including coastal dunes, common, farmland, woodland and deep incised valleys in the north where the land rises into the coalfield plateau. It covers an area of 246 square kilometres and stretches roughly 20 km west to east, taking in the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys.
The main areas of population are the towns of Bridgend, Maesteg and Porthcawl. These towns are physically divorced and well spaced, whereas the valley communities are found in linear settlements determined by the topography. Bridgend and its suburbs including Brackla, Broadlands, Litchard, and Sarn contain an estimated population of 35,000. Maesteg and adjacent villages has a population of approximately 21,000, whilst Porthcawl has a population of approximately 18,000.
The land use of the County Borough of Bridgend can be sub-divided into roughly three distinct areas which have different characteristics. The coastal plain is dominated by the holiday resort of Porthcawl. It enjoys fine sandy beaches and large coastal dune areas. A fertile farming belt forms a backdrop to the coastal strip before the land starts to rise in the form of limestone escarpments which run east to west across the Borough. The highly urbanised central area has scattered farmland and small pockets of woodland with strong field patterns. The northern upland area, comprising the coalfield plateau, contains land to 385 m above ordnance datum (AOD) with deeply incised valleys and large tracts of coniferous woodland on the valley sides and mountain tops.
Most industry is concentrated in the central urbanised area of the Borough although there are several industrial estates within the valley areas including former coal mining sites, which contributed to the South Wales deep mine industry. The local economy has undergone significant structural changes in recent decades with a noticeable shift from primary and manufacturing jobs to service sector employment. This has been particularly notable since the 1970s when coal mining in the valleys and steel production at nearby Port Talbot were significant providers of employment. The legacy of these structural changes and associated job loss has contributed to deprivation in some wards within the County Borough. However, the overall economic performance of the County Borough in recent years has been positive and strong growth means that the area has now has a higher GDP per head than the Wales average.
Employment in Bridgend County Borough is concentrated in five wards in the south east of the Borough, with three of them accounting for over half the employment in the area. Average earnings are below the average for Wales and Great Britain as a whole, partly due to the dominance of low value-added manufacturing and lower-order service sectors in the Borough. The area has secured in recent years some of the largest capital investment projects in Wales including Sony Manufacturing Company UK and Ford's Engine Plant.
The main employers are:
- Bridgend County Borough Council - 7,500
- Sony Manufacturing UK Ltd - 3,000
- Ford Motor Company - 1,400
- Creative Outsourcing Solutions International (COSI) - 1,000
- BAA McArthur Glen - 1,000
- Cooper, Standard - 600
- Lloyds TSB Call Centre - 550
- Georgia Pacific (Paper Mill) - 500
- Bayer Diagnostics Ltd - 300
- South Wales Police HQ
- Bridgend NHS Trust
- Tesco's
- Sainsbury's
The neighbouring Authorities are Neath and Port Talbot to the west, Rhondda Cynon Taff to the north and north east and Vale of Glamorgan to the east.
The population has grown continuously over the past thirty years to the current estimate of approximately 131,000. However, the level of growth has not been uniform over this period. In the 1960’s, the population increased by 11% whereas growth has been more modest since then. Nevertheless, the population has continued to grow overall rising from 108,950 in 1961 to 129,950 in 1991. By 1996, the population of the Borough had reached 130,241 with some 40% of this total accounted for by the main child-bearing age groups of 15 – 44. The population is projected to rise by 7,300 persons by 2016, i.e. a further growth of 5.60%, producing a total population of 137,541. This growth, coupled with national trends to form smaller households, produces an increase of 7,954 households. This translates into a dwelling growth of 8,350 between 1996 – 2016.
The main components of the population forecast are shown in Table 1 .
Table 1 Population Forecast
EVENT |
1996 |
2001 |
2006 |
2011 |
2016 |
Building Programme¹ |
1,965 |
2,270 |
2,270 |
2,270 | |
Total Dwellings |
53,460 |
55,317 |
54,479 |
59,641 |
61,803 |
Vacancy Rate |
5.00% |
5.00% |
5.00% |
5.00% |
5.00% |
Total Households3 |
50,973 |
52,744 |
54,804 |
56,867 |
58,927 |
Average Household Size² |
2.52 |
2.46 |
2.40 |
2.34 |
2.30 |
Total Population4 |
130,241 |
131,671 |
133,720 |
135,495 |
137,541 |
¹Source Bridgend County Borough Council’s Anticipated Housing Completions
² =Total Population/Total Households
3Source Bridgend County Borough Council's Deposit Unitary Development Plan
4Source Bridgend County Borough Council's Deposit Unitary Development Plan
The age profile of the Borough is expected to change quite dramatically over the next thirteen years. The proportion of the population over the age of retirement is expected to rise from 19.2% in 1996 to 23.2% in 2016, representing a net increase of 6,882 persons. The progressive ageing of the population is compounded by anticipated losses of population in the younger age groups. The proportion of the population aged 0 – 14 is expected to fall by 6.8% over the period. In addition there is expected to be a net decrease of 798 persons in the 30 – 44 economically active age band. The older economically active population over the age of 45, is forecast to increase by a net figure of 3,245 persons.
As the total population is forecast to increase so the average household size is predicted to decrease. The reduction in the average household size is a national trend and factors such as an increasing divorce rate, higher life expectancy and a propensity for young single people to set up home for themselves are major factors which explain this trend. The number of households in Bridgend County Borough Council is projected to increase by 7,954 to 58,927 in 2016. This forecast is slightly higher than the Welsh Assembly’s 1994 Household Projection for Wales; however this set of projections adopts a different set of assumptions, and starts from a different base date, which mitigates against direct comparisons. The Welsh Assembly forecast the number of households in Bridgend County Borough Council to increase by 7,000 between 1996 and 2016.
Municipal waste arisings consist of household waste, commercial waste collected by the Authority under contract with local businesses and wastes produced by the Authority itself. In particular, wastes categorised as being municipal waste include:
- Household waste collected from domestic premises
- Bulky waste collected from domestic premises, including garden wastes
- Household amenity site waste
- Waste collected from public litter bins, street sweepings and general litter
- Clinical waste collected from domestic properties
- Recycled waste deposited at bring sites
- Recycled waste collected through kerbside collections
- Waste collected from commercial and industrial premises under contract by the Authority
- Waste produced by the Authority, including clearance of fly-tipped waste, office waste, catering waste and grounds maintenance waste.
Accurate and comprehensive waste data is only available from 1996/97 following the creation of Bridgend County Borough Council. Prior to that date, waste was collected and disposed under a variety of arrangements by the predecessor District Authority, and records of total arisings and disposal are incomplete.
Table 2 below summarises the quantities of waste arising and disposed of for the period 1996/97 to 2001/02. From this data it can be seen that in 1996/97, a total of 55,805 tonnes of municipal wastes arose in Bridgend County Borough, of which 2,098 tonnes were recycled and 53,707 tonnes were disposed of to landfill. By 2001/02, annual arisings had risen to 68,584 tonnes, with 5428 tonnes being recycled, 1,972 tonnes composted and 61,183 tonnes disposed to landfill.
Year |
Household Waste Recycled (tonnes) |
Household Waste Composted (tonnes) |
Municipal Waste Disposed to Landfill (tonnes) |
Total Municipal Waste Arisings (tonnes) |
1996/97 |
2098 |
0 |
53707 |
55805 |
1997/98 |
3259 |
0 |
58342 |
61601 |
1998/99 |
3067 |
0 |
62566 |
65633 |
1999/00 |
3784 |
0 |
61419 |
65203 |
2000/01 |
4003 |
0 |
63763 |
67766 |
2001/02 |
5428 |
1972 |
61183 |
68584 |
Table 2 Municipal Waste Arisings, Disposal and Recycling
The trend in increasing growth in arisings is similar to that experienced Nationally and reflects a general increase in the amounts of waste produced by householders and businesses and the effect of the additional waste produced by a rise in the number of households (which rose by some 2000 over this period). The annual waste arisings have risen by some 12,779 tonnes - over the period, representing a total growth of around 22.9%. Growth was most rapid in the earlier years, with the annual growth rate in 1997/98 running at 10.4%. The rate of increase in waste then showed a gradual decline to reach 1.2% per year by 2001/02.
Year |
Household Waste Recycled (tonnes) |
Total Municipal Waste Arisings (tonnes) |
Recycling Rate (%) |
1996/97 |
2098 |
55805 |
3.8 |
1997/98 |
3259 |
61601 |
5.3 |
1998/99 |
3067 |
65633 |
4.7 |
1999/00 |
3784 |
65203 |
5.8 |
2000/01 |
4003 |
67766 |
5.9 |
2001/02 |
7401 |
68584 |
10.8 |
Table 3 Municipal Waste Recycling Rates
The recycling performance over this period is shown in Table 3. Recycling rates have increased from 3.8% in 1996/97 to 10.8% in 2001/02 (if composted waste is included as being recycled). Also included from the 2001/02 figure are 1118 tonnes of hardcore which was recycled from the Tythegston Household Waste Amenity Site. Hardcore is currently not included in the National Performance Indicators for recycling. If hardcore is excluded, the recycling/composting rate for 2001/02 would be equivalent to 9.31% of municipal waste.
A significant fraction of household waste is so called bulky waste which consists of larger items presently collected along with the weekly refuse collections. Bulky waste is also collected through the provision of a single household waste amenity site at Tythegston. Until 1998, the Council used to provide a supplementary community skip programme throughout the year for bulky waste. This service was withdrawn in 1998 due to legal constraints. Table 4 shows the total amounts of household wastes collected separately from the general household waste collections during the 1996/97 to 2001/02 period. In later years, there has been a progressive extension of the kinds of wastes that are collected at the household waste amenity site, which now include many recyclable wastes such as glass, paper and textiles together with a variety of provision for hazardous household wastes. Green wastes accepted at the site are now treated separately by composting.
Year |
Household Waste Amenity Arisings |
Community Skip Arisings |
Total |
% of Municipal Waste |
1996/97 |
12484 |
533 |
13017 |
23.3 |
1997/98 |
13760 |
580 |
14340 |
23.3 |
1998/99 |
16152 |
0 |
16152 |
24.6 |
1999/00 |
12276 |
0 |
12276 |
18.8 |
2000/01 |
15404 |
0 |
15404 |
22.7 |
2001/02 |
16243 |
0 |
16243 |
23.7 |
Table 4 Household Amenity Waste Arisings
Between 18% and 24 % of municipal wastes were collected through the household amenity site or community skip programme over the period. However, there were fluctuations from one year to the next with no discernible trend. By 2001/02, a total of 16243 tonnes of household amenity waste were being deposited at Tythegston. In common with household waste amenity sites across the Country, there are pronounced seasonal patterns in the amounts of waste generated as shown in Figure 2 which presents data for 2001/02.
Figure 2 Seasonal Trend in Household Amenity Waste Arisings and Composition 2001/02
Household amenity waste generation is at a maximum during the April to August period with around 1890 tonnes per month being deposited at the site. During the winter period from September to March, this figure drops to around 970 tonnes per month. This Figure also includes a breakdown of the components of household amenity waste as they are separated at the site. It can be seen that from Sept 2001, the segregation of different waste types rose substantially as a result of increased range of materials being collected for recycling. Prior to September 2001, a mean of 34 tonnes a month of household amenity waste was recycled. After the introduction of a wider range of facilities for separation of waste, this rose to a mean of 555 tonnes per month being recycled/composted, or close to 57% of waste arisings at the site.
As has been previously shown, there has been a steady growth in the quantities of household waste that are separated for recycling/composting. Figure 3 illustrates the components of household waste that were recycled over the period 1996 to 2002.
Figure 3 Fractions of Household Waste Separated for Recycling/Composting
It can be seen that the significant increase achieved in 2001/02 was largely attributable to the effect of recycling/composting soil, hardcore and green waste at the Tythegston household waste amenity site.
Commercial waste is collected by the Council under contracts with shops, offices, workshops and other similar businesses in the area. A summary of the total arisings of commercial waste is presented in Table 5. As can be seen, commercial waste comprises around 7% of total municipal waste arisings in the area. There has been very little change in the percentage composition over the period 1996/97 to 2001/02, although there has been growth of some 643 tonnes in absolute terms. The stability in the proportions of total arisings may be largely attributable to the fact that the arisings are estimated on an assumed 10% proportion of household waste fraction of municipal waste.
Year |
Total Municipal Waste Arising (tonnes) |
Commercial Waste (tonnes) |
Commercial Waste % of Municipal Waste |
1996/97 |
55805 |
4011 |
7.2 |
1997/98 |
61601 |
4246 |
6.9 |
1998/99 |
65633 |
4396 |
6.7 |
1999/00 |
65203 |
4774 |
7.3 |
2000/01 |
67766 |
4645 |
6.9 |
2001/02 |
68584 |
4654 |
6.8 |
Figure 5 Commercial Waste Arisings
A further component of municipal waste is that waste collected by the Authority in discharging its functions in relation to litter and street sweeping and clearance of fly-tipped waste. Unlike commercial waste, this waste fraction has seen a significant increase over the period, rising from 962 tonnes in 1996/97 to 2370 tonnes in 2001/02 as shown in Table 6. Street cleaning waste now comprises 3.5% of the municipal waste stream in the area. This trend in increasing arisings is in part due to the increasing priority and effort devoted to keeping urban areas free of litter, but also reflects an increase in the amount of illegally tipped wastes that the Council is responsible for clearing. This trend has also been reported by many other Authorities, particularly since the introduction of Landfill Tax which has substantially increased landfill costs and the number of people who are prepared to illegally tip waste to avoid higher costs for legal disposal.
Year |
Total Municipal Waste Arising (tonnes) |
Street Cleaning and Fly-tipped Waste (tonnes) |
Street cleaning and fly-tipped waste % of Municipal Waste |
1996/97 |
55805 |
962 |
1.7 |
1997/98 |
61601 |
1925 |
3.1 |
1998/99 |
65633 |
2633 |
4.0 |
1999/00 |
65203 |
2040 |
3.1 |
2000/01 |
67766 |
2394 |
3.5 |
2001/02 |
68584 |
2370 |
3.5 |
Table 6 Other Wastes
The effects of the various factors underlying the growth in waste over the period are summarised in Figure 4 which shows a compositional breakdown for municipal waste over the period 1996 to 2002.
Figure 4 Total Municipal Waste Arisings - Summary
Year |
Total Municipal Waste Arising (tonnes) |
Number of households |
Waste arisings per Household (kg per year) |
1996/97 |
55805 |
50973 |
1094.8 |
1997/98 |
61601 |
||
1998/99 |
65633 |
||
1999/00 |
65203 |
||
2000/01 |
67766 |
52744 |
1284.8 |
2001/02 |
68584 |
Table 7 Waste arisings per household
From data included in the Unitary Development Plan, there were around 50,973 households in the County Borough in 1996/97. The mean arisings of municipal waste per household were therefore 1044.8 kilogrammes per year. By 2000/01 this had risen to 1284.8 kilogrammes per household as shown in Table 7. Therefore municipal arisings per household have increased by some 190 kg over the period 1996 to 2000. As the population and number of households are forecast to grow by some 6,183 households by 2016, proportionate to current arisings and in the absence of significant intervention to minimise waste, by 2016 municipal waste arisings would be expected to rise by some 7,946 tonnes per year. This is a very crude prediction as it assumes that growth in the number of households is directly correlated to the total amount of municipal waste. In practice, some of the component waste streams may exhibit trends that are independent of the number of households. Forecasts of the growth of municipal waste and its various component fractions are presented in Section 2.
The current development plan framework for the provision of waste facilities in the Borough is set out in the following plans:-
(i) the adopted Ogwr Borough Local Plan (1995),
(ii) the adopted Mineral Local Plan for limestone in Mid Glamorgan (as it relates to Bridgend County Borough (1997), and
(iii) the Deposit Unitary Development Plan (UDP – 2002).
At present, most weight is attached to policies contained in the adopted Plans but it should be noted that the plan referred to in (ii) above only covers mineral waste.
With reference to the adopted Ogwr Borough Local Plan, the justification for policies contained in this plan originate from the Borough’s Waste Disposal Plan which was approved in 1985. The Plan contains two policies which relate to (i) the location of favoured licensed waste disposal sites and (ii) a criteria-based policy against which proposals for waste/disposal/waste recovery are considered.
The adopted Mineral Local Plan for limestone in Mid Glamorgan (as it relates to Bridgend) contains two policies relating to mineral waste. Such waste is usually generated by the screening/processing of minerals and consequently the policies stipulate that (i) operators make beneficial use of mineral waste to aid screening and restoration, and (ii) any application for the disposal of mineral waste is carried out in accordance with an overall scheme of quarry working.
The Deposit Unitary Development Plan (UDP) for Bridgend sets out policies based on new government advice which requires that development plans should make provision for an adequate network of waste management facilities while taking into account environmental considerations and having due regard for the waste disposal plan for the area.
In general, the Part 1 UDP waste policy seeks to favour waste development proposals where they contribute toward the satisfactory provision of a full range of waste disposal and waste management facilities including sites for central/community composting, additional household waste amenity facilities, landfill disposal and inert recycling centres; and the promotion of sustainable waste management practices including waste minimisation, re-use and appropriate recycling or recovery with minimum environmental impact and maximum local benefit.
Part 2 UDP policies seek to translate the objectives of the Part 1 policy into meaningful land use allocations. Such policies cover the following:-
(i) Sustainable transportation of bulk waste
A site for the collection and transfer of waste for bulk transportation out of the Borough has been allocated within the future regeneration site at Tondu. This acknowledges that the existing waste transfer site at Stormy Down is a temporary facility and not well placed to serve the Borough. The site at Tondu is also accessible by rail and a link to a new materials recycling and energy recovery centre (MREC) in Crymlyn Burrows, Neath, could be made. (A full description of the plant is referred to on Page 21 - Provision of Recycling Facilities.)
(ii) Provision of waste disposal site
This policy acknowledged that whilst there is likely to be a diminishing need for landfill sites, the then existing Tythegston Quarry would continue to accept domestic, commercial and non-hazardous waste. In practice, the Landfill at Tythegston has now ceased to accept waste and waste is now therefore being disposed of at other suitable landfills outside of the County Borough. When the MREC is commissioned, it will receive all of the municipal waste handled by the Council, with other wastes handled by private operators being consigned to facilities based on economic factors.
(iii) Reduction and control of landfill sites
This criteria based policy stipulates that the landfill of waste will only be permitted where the recycling of waste is not feasible and all of the stated criteria need to be satisfied.
(iv) Provision of sites for the recycling of mineral waste
In order to encourage the recycling of inert mineral waste a number of sites have been identified in and around the Cornelly Quarry complex. Such sites are normally considered to be complimentary to the quarrying industry.
(v) Waste minimisation and recycling
In order to provide for the collection, and where appropriate the treatment of waste, all major new developments must include provision for handling, storage and if applicable, treatment of waste generated through the use of the development.
(vi) Re-use and recycling of materials
In order to conserve natural resources it is important to maximise the re-use and recycling of materials within the proposed development itself or in other local construction schemes.
(vii) Control over the disposal of special waste
Special waste, such as industrial and commercial waste, often requires special treatment facilities where it can be processed to make it acceptable to deposit. This policy, therefore, stipulates that development for the disposal, storage or distribution of special waste will only be permitted where the environmental effects are considered acceptable.
(viii) Provision of household waste amenity sites
In accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Council needs to provide opportunities for such sites at strategic locations throughout the Borough. Whilst the policy does not stipulate specific sites, it does state that they will generally be encouraged towards existing areas or allocations for general industry.
Waste Collection and Disposal and Other Cleansing services are provided by the Technical Section of the Department of Architectural & Technical Services within the Directorate of Environmental and Planning Services. The responsible Cabinet Member is Cllr W H C Teesdale.
The service involves the collection and disposal of all domestic waste arising within the County Borough and the collection of commercial waste from businesses holding a collection agreement with the Authority along with responsibility for cleansing of adopted highways and other relevant land. In addition, the section carries out the removal of abandoned vehicles and recycling, civic amenity and public convenience provision.
The service is subdivided as follows:
Waste Disposal
- Provision of household waste amenity facilities (currently approximately 15500 tonnes
per annum)
- Removal and disposal of abandoned vehicles (approximately 500 vehicles per annum)
- Provision of recycling facilities (17 'bring' centres and a paper collection service from approximately 35,000 households).
- Disposal of domestic, commercial and other municipal waste
Refuse Collection
- Domestic waste (service provided weekly to all 57,542 domestic properties within the County Borough that are liable under Council Tax)
- Commercial waste (approximately 770 commercial premises)
- Bulky waste (approximately 16,500 - collections per annum)
- Clinical waste (service provided weekly to approximately 40 properties)
Other Cleaning
- Litter picking
- Collection of fly tipped material
- Mechanical highway sweeping
- Cleansing of public toilets.
Resources Available to Deliver the Service
For the financial year 2002/03 the total cost of the waste collection and disposal services is estimated at £6,940,000.
There are 133 FTE employees involved in the provision of this service. Following the award of the Refuse Collection Contract to an external contractor in March 2003, some of the current in-house jobs have been transferred through TUPE to the external contractor.
Provision of domestic refuse collection is a statutory function in accordance with the provision of Section 45(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The service is provided weekly to all domestic properties within the County Borough. The Council operates a sack collection system whereby householders may deposit domestic waste for collection in black plastic sacks. The Council currently provides one sack per household per week for this purpose. Any additional sacks are provided by householders at their own expense.
Householders are generally required to deposit waste for collection at the kerbside. However, where householders are able to demonstrate that they are unable to transport waste to the kerbside, the Council offers an assisted refuse collection service. This involves operatives entering the property to remove waste on the householder’s behalf. The Council undertakes approximately 500 assisted collections per annum.
In addition, as part of the Council’s Pilot Best Value Project (examining services for person with visual impairment), the assisted refuse collection service was advertised in the Social Services audio service, ‘Talking Newspaper’, with a view to increasing awareness of its existence on the part of the visually impaired.
The Council levies a charge in respect of the collection of garden waste, recovering the costs via the sale of green garden waste sacks.
Historically, the service was provided in-house. However, the service was recently submitted to competitive tender with the result that, with effect from 1st April 2003, collections are undertaken on the Council’s behalf by Biffa Waste Services.
Under the provisions of Section 45(2) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Council has a duty to arrange the collection of waste arising from commercial properties where it has been requested to do so.
The Council currently serves approximately 770 commercial premises with collection frequencies tailored meet the requirements of individual businesses. This represents approximately 28% of the total market. However, a significant proportion of these businesses tend not to deal with local authority waste disposal services due to the scale of their operations and the existence of national waste contracts.
Businesses are offered a range of waste collection options comprising wheeled containers and pre-paid sacks.
Historically, the service has been provided in-house. However, the service was recently submitted to competitive tender with the result that, with effect from 1st April 2003, collections are undertaken on the Council’s behalf by Biffa Waste Services.
Under the provisions of Section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 it is the duty of the Council to arrange for the collection of household waste. However, a charge can be made for bulky refuse as described in Schedule 2 – The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992.
This is a popular and well-used service. The service receives approximately 16,500 bulky waste collections per annum. The popularity of the service may, however, be indicative of the fact that the Council operates only one household waste amenity site, which is situated within the south western area of the County Borough.
The current system permits householders to receive the collection of five most free-standing items free of charge. However, the collection of additional items along with fixtures and fittings, garden waste and general black bag waste is chargeable. The Council attempts to arrange collection of requested items within ten working days of receipt of the original request.
Historically, the service has been provided in-house. However, the service was recently submitted to competitive tender with the result that, with effect from 1st April 2003, collections are undertaken on the Council’s behalf by Biffa Waste Services.
Under the provisions of Section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 it is the duty of the Council to arrange for the collection of household clinical waste. However, a charge can be made for clinical refuse as described in Schedule 2 – The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992.
The Council provides a free service to approximately 40 households per week by means of a dedicated collection. Collections are undertaken on a weekly basis. Disposable yellow sacks are provided to recipients of this service by the Health Authority.
Historically, the service has been provided in-house. However, the service was recently submitted to competitive tender with the result that, with effect from 1st April 2003, collection and disposal is undertaken on the Council’s behalf by Biffa Waste Services.
Disposal of Abandoned Vehicles and Fly-tipping
Under the provisions of the Refuse Disposal Amenity Act, the Council has a duty to arrange the removal and destruction of abandoned vehicles, where such removal can be undertaken at reasonable cost.
The removal and destruction of abandoned vehicles is undertaken on the Authority’s behalf by a private contractor and during the 2002/03 financial year, approximately 500 such vehicles were removed from public areas. Around 98% by weight of the vehicles removed are recycled.
Amnesty Scheme
Abandoned vehicles not only blight the environment but pose a health and safety risk to the public and encourage vandalism and arson. In a bid to alleviate the problem of abandoned vehicles within the County Borough, the authority launched a pilot vehicle amnesty scheme in May 2003. The scheme involved owners surrendering vehicles to the authority for disposal free of charge, enabling swifter removal of vehicles and a reduction of the authority's administration and inspection costs.
The initial pilot scheme was well received with over 400 vehicles surrendered between May and July 2003.
The Council also has a duty to arrange for the clearance of fly-tipped waste on relevant land. This services are provided by in-house teams from the relevant works units dependant on where the fly-tipped material is located (highways, ground maintenance, refuse etc).
Cleansing in public areas is achieved by manual litter picking and mechanical sweeping. Whilst the use of mechanical sweepers is not obligatory, such methods constitute an important component in achieving the standards and response times set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.
Mechanical sweepers are utilised in the channel sweeping of highways, surface sweeping of car parks and pedestrianised areas and augment litter clearance activities in town centres and early morning cleansing operations.
Minimum mechanical sweeping frequencies have been adopted in accordance with the County Surveyors’ Code of Good Practice for Highway Maintenance.
In addition, the Council utilises smaller ‘ride-on’ sweepers, which are effective in the removal of small litter and detritus, to undertake the cleansing of town centre footways/pedestrianised areas at Bridgend, Maesteg and Porthcawl.
The council operates 3 applied sweepers and 3 mechanical sweepers which are employed to sweep 717 km of public highway and 107 km² of car parks and pedestrianised areas.
The Council undertakes construction, alteration and repair works to the County’s own road network and as agent for the National Assembly for Wales in respect of Trunk Roads (M4 Motorway, junctions 34-37). Construction and repair work to roads generates mainly inert excavation wastes.
Road schemes are subject to competitive tendering and a range of contractors are employed, including the Council’s Highways Maintenance Works Unit (HMWU). However, the Council’s HMWU is mainly involved in rapid response highway maintenance works which usually involve only relatively small quantities of highway waste.
Where possible, new road schemes and major repair works are designed to produce a net material balance. That is to say that excavated materials are used as fill elsewhere on the scheme. This is not always possible and on some schemes large volumes of waste soil can be created.
Where external contractors are used, disposal of waste materials is largely their responsibility, although contracts do usually specify how such wastes should be dealt with to ensure legal compliance. Where the HMWU undertake works, waste disposal is controlled under the Council’s procedures.
Waste arising from general highways maintenance operations are also dealt with either by contractor or the HMWU under contract.
The Highways HMWU generate five main types of waste. These are:
- Gully and manhole emptying
- Bitmac
- Sub-soil and crushed rock
- Mixtures of bitmac and topsoil
- Concrete lamp columns and other concrete products
Under the Highways Contract, the HMWU empty gullies and manholes using gully suckers. The material generated is normally disposed of to landfill. This material consists of
Silts and gravels and although very few tests have been undertaken on this material, it is believed that the contamination risk is very low. Feasibility studies are being undertaken for washing pens for this material to filter out hydrocarbon contamination and to collect it petrol interceptors. The residual material will then be suitable for fill in general construction works or for consignment to landfill.
Bitmac (bituminous macadam road stone) waste is generated in two ways. Firstly where a road surface is dig up in lumps and secondly where the surface is planed. The former is disposed of largely to landfill. The second method creates a material that is classified by the Highways specification 6F3. This material may be used as fill and capping in general earthworks providing that it does not contain tar. A comparable material bought from a quarry would cost in excess of £8 per tonne.
Excavation during highways works and other site operations generates waste consisting of sub-soil and crushed rock. This material is inert and of it cannot be used in adjacent works, is frequently sent to landfill sites or where possible is used for land restoration on exempt sites where there is a valid planning permission for that purpose.
Mixtures of bitmac and soil is not classified as inert waste and is therefore disposed of to licensed landfills. However, the Council is undertaking a feasibility study of a new facility to separate by means of screening, the various materials. If this proves practical, then quantities of waste can be significantly reduced and open-up further recycling opportunities.
Although reducing year-on-year, the Council’s HMWU replaces concrete street lighting columns with steel. The concrete columns are collected, until sufficient quantities are available to financially justify the crushing and recycling of the concrete as aggregate. Any reinforcing is recycled as scrap steel. Other concrete products, such as slabs, pipes and manhole rings are crushed and the arisings reused as aggregate.
Annually, it is estimated that 2,000 tonnes of the various above wastes are disposed of to licensed landfills in the area. In addition, an estimated 10,000 tonnes of inert excavation wastes were also disposed of during 2001/02 to sites exempt from holding Waste Management Licenses for inert waste.
Provision of Household Waste Amenity Facilities
The Council has a statutory duty under Section 51(1)(b) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to provide household waste amenity facilities within the County Borough at which members of the public may deposit household waste. This service is provided free of charge to local householders through the Household Waste Amenity site service.
The Council currently operates 1 household waste amenity site, which is situated at the privately operated Tythegston landfill site. The site is a well-used facility and disposal quantities are in the order of 15,500 tonnes per annum. This facility is privately operated following competitive tendering procedures. The Council is currently in the process of developing/commissioning 3 further household waste amenity sites at strategic points across the County Borough and will be awarding a contract(s) for their management during 2003/04.
In seeking to control the transfer of inappropriate wastes to household waste amenity facilities, the council operates an authorisation note system. Householders wishing to transfer waste to the household waste amenity site by means of trailers or vans are required to obtain an authorisation note. Notes are available free of charge and upon request, subject to on-site inspection of the relevant waste. The Council issues approximately 1100 authorisation notes per annum.
Facilities are being developed at the current household waste amenity site and at three planned additional sites for the collection and recycling or disposal of hazardous household wastes. Facilities will be available for asbestos, CFCs, fluorescent tubes, oil, hazardous chemicals and certain electrical/electronic wastes.
Provision of Recycling Facilities
The Council currently operates a kerbside paper collection service catering to approximately 35,000 households, together with recycling banks for a variety of materials at 18 sites throughout the County Borough, including the recycling banks at the household waste amenity site.
Cheshire Recycling Limited are contracted to service the paper recycling banks and the kerbside collection of waste paper. The kerbside paper collections operate using blue plastic bags. Greenwood Services Limited undertake the collections of paper on behalf of Cheshire Recycling Limited. They also have the contract for the collection of glass for recycling from the recycling banks situated throughout the County Borough.
The majority of the textile banks are provided and serviced by the Salvation Army, but there are a few additional banks placed by Oxfam and British Heart Foundation at various locations.
South Herts Waste Management Ltd are the sole contractors for all the recycling carried out at the Household Waste Amenity Site at Tythegston. They collect, segregate and arrange for the recycling of a variety of materials at the site.
In addition, the Council operates a home composting scheme whereby householders may obtain composting bins, at a discounted cost, for the disposal of their organic household waste. It is estimated that 2350 households have taken advantage of the scheme to date.
In the context of recycling initiatives, it has been necessary to develop new strategies to ensure that the Council complies with the formal recycling and composting targets set out in the National Waste Strategy and the Landfill Directive.
The challenges in respect of the provision of the recycling facilities are inextricably linked with those of the waste disposal service. The Council, in partnership with Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, is now contractually committed to a twenty-five year contract with a specialist contractor to develop and operate a materials recovery and energy centre (MREC). As this contract develops, some of the existing recycling schemes will have to change to make best use of the resources and services provided at the MREC. The exact extent and nature of these changes has yet to be determined.
Disposal of Domestic, Commercial and Other Municipal Waste
The Council has a statutory duty under Section 51(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange the disposal of domestic, commercial and other municipal waste collected within the County Borough.
The Council does not operate a LAWDC (Local Authority Waste Disposal Company). In addition, the Council does not have access to its own landfill site within the County Borough. Therefore, arrangements have been made following a tender procedure amongst specialist waste disposal contractors for waste to be disposed of at private landfill facilities.
The current contractor has no landfill sites of its own within the Borough and, consequently, arranges for the transfer of the Council’s waste via a transfer station located at Stormy Down to a variety of landfill sites outside the County Borough.
The National Waste Strategy and the European Landfill Directive place stringent targets upon the United Kingdom and Welsh Local Authorities to substantially reduce the amount of waste to landfill without prior treatment. The Council has responded by developing a long- term strategy in partnership with a neighbouring local authority, to ensure compliance with Landfill Directive requirements.
As referred to previously, a private company has now been commissioned to develop and operate a materials recovery facility to be situated in the neighbouring area of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. This is referred to as the MREC, or Materials Recovery and Energy Centre. The facility will provide an integrated waste disposal solution incorporating the composting, recycling and energy recovery from the various fractions from the municipal waste stream. The effects of the development of the MREC on future diversion rates of waste away from landfill are predicted in Section 2 of this Strategy. The MREC is due to commence full-scale operations in 2004.
In addition to those services described above that have been contracted following formal competitive tendering, as required under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Council is developing a wide range of partnerships with local community groups, the community sector and local companies to promote waste minimisation, re-use and recycling. These partnerships are based on mutual gain and include, as appropriate, provision of support (particularly officer time), funding, provision of physical resources and premises. Direct financial assistance is given to projects on their merits, particularly those that foster community action, provide employment or training opportunities or involve disadvantaged groups. Examples of partnerships or supported projects are outlined below.
Afonydd Glan/Clean Rivers Project
Bridgend County Borough Council is working with other local authorities, Keep Wales Tidy Campaign and the organisations to rid the County Borough's waterways of discarded litter, domestic waste and even rouge shopping trolleys. The Afonydd Glan/Clean Rivers Project aims to get local communities involved with river clean-up projects, promoting a greater sense of community ownership and to raise the profile of rivers as local amenities. There are currently 11 river care groups throughout the County Borough, undertaking a range of activities from river clean-ups, litter picks, tree planting and bird box construction. Bridgend County Borough Council understands the importance of river enhancement and provides funding to support the work of the voluntary groups where this is appropriate.
Real Nappy Campaign
The County Borough Council has partnered Sustainable Wales in promoting the ‘Real Nappy Campaign’. The scheme encourages parents to use re-useable nappies as opposed to disposable ones, therefore diverting nappies from the waste stream and landfill sites. The Council also supports the Gentle Touch Nappy Laundry Service, which is a not-for-profit business, providing a real nappy laundry service for all residents throughout the County Borough. A baby uses 5,000 nappies on average in its lifetime and each nappy can take between 350 and 500 years to break down completely. The re-useable nappy is more cost effective in the long run, and Bridgend County Borough Council feels that the scheme is worthy of support, and particularly aids in promoting the ‘waste minimisation’ message to a wider audience.
Christmas Card Recycling Scheme
The Tesco and WH Smith Christmas Card Recycling Scheme collected 786 tonnes throughout the UK for recycling in January/February 2003. Bridgend County Borough Council backed the scheme providing funding so that the cards could be collected and transported for recycling, thus diverting from landfill and incineration. The project helped replant and maintain woodlands throughout the UK and helped raise waste awareness across Wales. The scheme was endorsed by Kim Wilde and was deemed a great success.
Ringo Recycling Programme
The Council actively promotes waste awareness within local schools by introducing the Ringo Recycling Programme. The Programme was launched in 2001 with a competition to encourage school children to collect plastic hi-cone rings (that bind tins/cans together) for recycling. The top six schools (those who collect the most plastic rings per pupil) in each County Borough are invited to a ‘Fun day’ to be presented with certificates and cash prizes by the Mayors of both Councils. To date the venues have been the Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl and the Princess Royal Theatre, Port Talbot. At the 'fun day' various events take place throughout the day e.g. an environmental entertainment duo, MOMO, fashion shows and short plays, together with environmental stalls, face painters and an opportunity to meet the Ringo mascot. In 2003, there were over 120,000 plastic rings collected for recycling and it is hoped that the Ringo programme will continue to improve for many years, and service to raise environmental awareness amongst local schools.
Home Composting Guide
Working in partnership with other Local Authorities in South West Wales, a ‘Home Composting Guide’ has been produced to promote composting and waste minimisation principles. The guide has been delivered to every household in the County Borough, with an offer of purchasing a compost bin at a subsidised price.
Track 2000
Track 2000 is a registered non-profit charity working for and with the local community. The Charity was established in 1990/91 initially working in Cardiff and more recently in the Vale of Glamorgan. The main aims and objectives of the project are to provide a service to carry out waste minimisation and provide re-use/recycling facilities within Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and now Bridgend. The project has many cross cutting themes, which include job creation, training and social support, centred around provision of a bulky household collection and re-use service. In addition, Track 2000 also targets local waste issues and help deter fly tipping activities. The County Borough Council has formed a partnership with Track 2000 to allow them to operate a bulky waste re-use/recycling scheme from Pandy Park depot in Aberkenfig. Under the partnership, Track 2000 will provide a free service collecting household goods donated by the public. A high percentage of these goods will be reused and passed back into Bridgend County Borough communities to under privileged individuals, families and disadvantaged communities. A small donation is required which is based on an assessment of the individual’s circumstances. This recycling initiative will contribute to the Council’s overall targets for reduction of waste.
Initially, Track 2000 will be undertaking a small number of collections per day. They would, however, like to run the project on the same basis as Cardiff, setting up premises to accommodate workshops, training, storing and viewing facilities. The workforce would all be local to Bridgend County Borough as would the training opportunities. The Charity has an extensive educational and training programme in I.T., electrical and electronic repairs, furniture renovation to name a few. This training is open to New Deal, young offenders, individuals with special needs etc. They also have education links with local schools, working closely with children promoting waste awareness
The Bridgend Environmental Educators Partnership
The Council has representation through the Bridgend Environmental Educators Partnership (BEEP) a group which aims to deliver Environmental Education throughout all the County Borough schools. Environmental education is now a vital part of the National Curriculum. It mirrors the aims of sustainable development and can therefore contribute to Local Agenda 21 in the County Borough.
The Council is working with Keep Wales Tidy and BEEP to promote Eco-Schools throughout all the schools in the County Borough. Eco-Schools is a programme for promoting environmental awareness in a way that links to many curriculum subjects, including citizenship, personal, social and health education (PSHE), and education for sustainable development. The aim of Eco-Schools is to move from environmental awareness in the curriculum to environmental action in the school and wider community. Any environmental management system needs a structure to help it run smoothly, and to make sure that there is a continuous momentum towards settling targets and working to achieve them.
Linking Eco-Schools activities to the schools curriculum will increase the status of the Eco-Schools programme and emphasise the importance of the projects. Litter and waste minimisation are just a couple of topics that the Eco-Schools are using in order to gain an award. There are currently 23 Eco-Schools in the Bridgend County Borough and BEEP aims to increase the number of Eco-Schools, helping as many children as possible to grow up being as environmentally aware as possible.
Nike Sports Stores
Bridgend County Borough Council is also working closely with ‘Nike Sports Stores’, helping to educate children from Youth Centres on various environmental issues. The children have participated in a litter pick in their surrounding areas and recycling officers were on hand to advise them on what to pick and the dangers some of the waste could pose. The scheme is currently running throughout the whole of the UK.
Waste Awareness Video
Bridgend County Borough Council , in partnership with Neath and Port-Talbot Council have created an educational video aimed at young children. The video stresses the importance of waste management and encourages children to get more involved when it comes to waste issues such as waste minimisation, re-use and recycling. The video emphasises that recycling is ‘cool’, and is highly beneficial to the environment from very little work. It features an animated genie, which immediately catches the attention of the children and has an up-beat soundtrack to keep them engrossed. The video also contains basic information on the Materials Recovery and Energy Centre, showing the children the work that is done there and how it will benefit the County Borough. The video will be highly beneficial to children and keep its ‘image’ for years to come, helping them to think differently about rubbish in the future.
Education Business Partnership
’
The ‘Education Business Partnership’, (EBP), teaches young individuals the value of waste management and gives them an insight into Business Management with regards to waste. Bridgend County Borough Council send representatives to help the children make products completely from waste, and advise them on the production of a marketing plan with respect to product, place, price and promotion. The project also asks the children to present their recycled product and describe how using recycled materials will benefit the environment. This is an excellent learning curve for everyone involved and will provide the children with the confidence to speak before large groups of people later on in life.
The waste management service is considered by the Council to be one of its most visible and important services. In general surveys of public attitudes towards their local environment and the effectiveness of Council service delivery, emptying bins, street litter and dog fouling regularly appear among the most important local issues for many people. In January 2001 the Directorate of Environmental and Planning Services published its Best Value Review which examined performance in waste management services, including waste collection, disposal and other cleaning.
The findings of the Best Value Service Review identified a range of areas in which the service could be improved.
The first area where a need for improvement was identified was in respect of refuse collection. The waste collection service was won by competitive tendering by the Council’s former Commercial Services Department for a five year period commencing 1st April 1997. The tender was based on a change from a five day week for staff to a four day week. This change, combined with an overall increase in the amount of waste collected, had resulted in an increase in the tonnages. Additional problems experienced by the service included high levels of absenteeism and an aging vehicle fleet. The combined effect of these problems were manifest in a poor performance in meeting the 10 day collection targets for bulky waste collection, having to transfer operatives in from other frontline services to cover absent staff and high costs associated with keeping aging vehicles operational. Notwithstanding these issues, 75% of the residents involved in a Community Satisfaction Survey were satisfied with the quality and effectiveness of the service. Improvements in the operational problems experienced by the service would present an opportunity to increase overall levels of community satisfaction.
The second area where improvements were considered important was that of refuse disposal. The Council operates a single household waste amenity site at Tythegston. This level of service was considered inadequate to meet the needs of residents across the County area and was identified as a contributory factor in high levels of fly-tipping in the north of the County Borough. Rising disposal costs and the need to ensure future diversion away from landfill disposal were also identified as important challenges for the service.
The final area where problems were identified was that of other cleaning. Previous budget cuts and the redeployment of operatives to alleviate the problems in refuse collection has led to a decrease in service provision. This was reflected in the fact that only 41% of residents involved in the Satisfaction Survey were satisfied with the service, and 22% expressed dissatisfaction.
Linked to the Best Value Review, a series of consultations with various interest groups were undertaken. These included:
ü A Community Satisfaction Survey undertaken by Research and Marketing Ltd;
ü Questionnaire surveys of 100 local businesses;
ü Questionnaire survey of all Councillors; and
ü Questionnaire surveys involving all operational staff.
A summary of the principal results of these various consultations that have specific relevance to the waste management service is given below:
Issue |
Positive Responses (as being satisfied or above) |
Negative Responses (as being dissatisfied or worse) |
Quality of refuse collection service – residents views |
75% |
5% |
Quality of refuse collection service – business views |
70% |
16% |
Quality of refuse collection – Councillors views |
91% |
9% |
Quality of cleanliness in their neighbourhood – residents views |
63% |
19% |
Quality of cleanliness in their neighbourhood – business views |
51% |
49% |
Quality of cleanliness in their neighbourhood – Councillors views |
35% |
65% |
Since the Best Value Service Review, a further community consultation has been undertaken during 2002 using a slightly different question set. The findings of this most recent survey indicate the following responses:
Would you say the cleanliness of the streets in your neighbourhood is good |
||||||||||
or poor? |
||||||||||
% |
||||||||||
Very good |
61 |
9.87 |
||||||||
Fairly good |
232 |
37.54 |
||||||||
Fairly poor |
173 |
27.99 |
||||||||
Very poor |
152 |
24.60 |
||||||||
618 |
|
|||||||||
Do you think the streets in this neighbourhood are generally cleaner, |
||||||||||
dirtier or about the same as they were two years ago? | ||||||||||
% |
||||||||||
Cleaner |
50 |
8.16 |
||||||||
About the same |
369 |
60.20 |
||||||||
Dirtier |
194 |
31.65 |
||||||||
613 |
|
|||||||||
Would you say the cleanliness of this town centre is good or poor? | ||||||||||
% |
||||||||||
Very good |
71 |
11.54 |
||||||||
Fairly good |
322 |
52.36 |
||||||||
Fairly poor |
134 |
21.79 |
||||||||
Very poor |
88 |
14.31 |
||||||||
615 |
|
|||||||||
Do you think the streets in this town centre are generally cleaner, dirtier or | ||||||||||
about the same as they were two years ago? |
||||||||||
% |
||||||||||
Cleaner |
113 |
18.65 |
||||||||
About the same |
359 |
59.24 |
||||||||
Dirtier |
134 |
22.11 |
||||||||
606 |
|
|||||||||
How good or poor would you say the refuse collection service is? | ||||||||||
% |
||||||||||
Very good |
333 |
53.80 |
||||||||
Fairly good |
226 |
36.51 |
||||||||
Fairly poor |
41 |
6.62 |
||||||||
Very poor |
19 |
3.07 |
||||||||
619 |
|
|||||||||
How good or poor would you say the workers who collect the refuse are in | ||||||||||
clearing any spillages? |
||||||||||
% |
||||||||||
Very good |
204 |
33.22 |
||||||||
Fairly good |
244 |
39.74 |
||||||||
Don't know |
41 |
6.68 |
||||||||
Fairly poor |
78 |
12.70 |
||||||||
Very poor |
47 |
7.65 |
||||||||
614 |
|
|||||||||
Based on these survey results, standard Public Satisfaction Indices (PSI) have been calculated which show how satisfied the community are with the services provided by the Council. For other cleaning, the overall PSI for 2002 was 46.94 indicating a mediocre level of satisfaction. Possibly reflecting the issues discussed above. For refuse collection on the other hand, the PSI for 2002 was 76.19 indicating a generally high level of satisfaction.
In relation to the Council’s performance in waste management, a system of National Performance Indicators (NAWPIs) are used for setting targets and tracking progress. For waste management, there are 4 principal NAWPIs against which performance is assessed. The relevant information on performance since 1999/00 is summarised in Table 8.
Table 8 National Performance Indicators for Waste Management – Bridgend County Borough Council
NAWPI Number |
Description |
Actual 99/00 |
Actual 00/01 |
Actual 01/02 |
Actual 02/03 |
5.1 |
Total tonnage of municipal waste arisings (household waste before 2001/02) |
||||
a)(i) percentage recycled |
5.8% |
6.14% |
6.28% |
7.04% | |
a)(ii) percentage incinerator residues, beach cleansing wastes, rubble and abandoned vehicles recycled |
N/a |
N/a |
N/a |
97% | |
b) percentage composted |
0% |
0% |
2.88% |
8.12% | |
c) percentage used to recover heat, power and other energy sources |
0% |
0% |
0% |
0% | |
d) percentage landfilled |
94.2% |
93.86% |
93.7% |
77.97% | |
5.5 |
The percentage of highways and relevant land inspected of a high or acceptable standard of cleanliness |
95.8% (error in calculation) |
52.2% |
74.9% |
78.7% |
5.6 |
Number of collections missed per 100,000 collections of household waste |
79.1 (D2a) 57.5 (D2b) |
649 |
147 |
79 |
5.7 |
Percentage of population served by a kerbside collection of recyclables. |
N/A |
57% |
57% |
57% |
The NAWPI data allows cross comparison between authorities. Table 9 shows how well Bridgend compares against the average for all Welsh authorities.
Table 9 Comparison of waste management performance in Bridgend compared to the average for Wales
NAWPI Number |
Description |
Welsh Average 00/01 |
Bridgend 00/01 |
5.1 |
Total tonnage of household waste arisings : |
||
a) percentage recycled |
6.5% |
6.14% | |
b) percentage composted |
1.4% |
0% | |
c) percentage used to recover heat, power and other energy sources |
<0.1% |
0% | |
d) percentage landfilled |
92% |
93.86% | |
5.5 |
The percentage of highways and relevant land inspected of a high or acceptable standard of cleanliness |
86% |
52.2% |
5.6 |
Number of collections missed per 100,000 collections of household waste |
394 |
649 |
5.7 |
Percentage of population served by a kerbside collection of recyclables. |
63% |
57% |
This shows that in 2000/01, the Council’s performance was marginally below the Welsh average for recycling, composting and the number of properties served by a kerbside collection, but was significantly worse than the Welsh average in terms of cleanliness of highways and relevant land and the number of missed household waste collections. The poor performance in waste collection and cleansing reflects the findings of the Best Value Review where problems were identified with refuse collection and other cleaning. Further in-depth comparisons and assessments are reported in the Best Value Review 2001.
Performance in street cleansing is assessed through the Local Environmental Audit & Management System (LEAMS). Leams is a system of monitoring of street cleanliness developed by the Tidy Britain Group in conjunction with the All Wales Waste Management Benchmarking Group. The system was piloted by seven Local Authorities, including Bridgend, over a one-year period commencing in summer 1999. The system proved to be successful and it is intended that it will be increasingly utilised throughout the UK to assist Local Authorities in the 'compare' element of Best Value.
Random inspections of highways, car parks and public open spaces etc. are undertaken on a monthly basis. The LEAMS system investigates factors such as dog fouling, graffiti, fly posting and vandalism along with the sources and specific types of waste.
A feature of the LEAMS system involves independent inspection undertaken by neighbouring authorities and Keep Wales Tidy. These inspections serve to verify the consistency of scoring levels across individual authorities, thus ensuring that routine inspections are undertaken on a like for like basis.
The cleanliness standards are described as follows:
GRADE A: No litter or refuse
GRADE B: Predominantly free of litter and refuse apart from some small items
GRADE C: Widespread distribution of litter and refuse with minor accumulations
GRADE D: Heavily littered with significant accumulations
Those areas classed as Grades C and D are classed as a priority and are dealt with at the soonest possible opportunity. The table below shows the percentages of areas classed as having an acceptable standard of cleanliness, (Grades A and B).
2000/01 |
2001/02 |
2002/03 | |
LEAMS Performance – Acceptable Standard of Cleanliness (%age of areas inspected) |
52.2 |
75.0 |
78.7 |
The LEAMS scores demonstrate continuous improvement in the proportion of areas reaching an acceptable cleanliness standard since the commencement of assessment in 2000.
This section considers the framework of strategic waste policy and identifies the key statutory requirements that are likely to impact on the development of future waste management services in the County Borough.
Legislative and EU Policy Pressures
There are a number of key European Union waste management Directives and Regulations that have an impact on UK waste policy. The principal EU drivers are summarised below.
The Framework Directive 75/442/EEC
Council Directive 75/442/EEC, amended by Council Directive 91/556/EEC establishes the primary objectives for the Member States with regard to waste management. These are:
- To promote the prevention of waste production through the development of clean technologies as well as the reuse and recycling of materials
- The recovery and recycling of waste as a secondary material
- Waste recovery and disposal without environmental damage or danger to human health
- The development of waste management plans
- To prevent movements of waste not in accordance with their waste management plans
- Self sufficiency in waste disposal
- Use of waste as an energy source
- The establishment of an integrated network of waste treatment and disposal facilities (taking into account Best Available Techniques) which will enable the Community as a whole to be self sufficient
Under the Framework Directive there have been a number of specific Directives and Regulations aimed at pursuing the main objectives through control and policy mechanisms developed in specific areas of waste management. These include
- Waste Framework Directive 75/442/EEC & Amended Framework Directive 91/156/EEC
- Landfill Directive 99/31/EC
- Waste Incineration Directive 2000/76/EC
- End of Life Vehicles Directive 2000/53/EC
- Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
- Ozone Depleting Regulations 2037/2000
- Hazardous Waste Directive 91/689/EEC
- Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste 94/137/EEC
Of these, the following are of particular importance:
The Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC
Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste (referred to as the Landfill Directive) was agreed in Europe at Council on 26 April 1999 and came into force in the EU on 16 July 1999 The Directive aims to harmonise controls on the landfill of waste throughout the European Union, and its main focus is to achieve common standards for the design, operation, and aftercare of landfill sites. It also aims to reduce the amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, emitted from landfill sites. The most significant features of the Directive are:
The quantity of “biodegradable municipal solid waste”, or BMW, disposed of to landfill must be treated prior to disposal and must be reduced to:
75% of 1995 baseline levels by 2006 (2010 in the UK)
50% of 1995 baseline levels by 2009 (2013 in the UK)
35% of 1995 baseline levels by 2016 (2020 in the UK)
Under the Directive, States reliant on landfill (>80% for BMW disposal) have an option to extend these dates. This option will apply to the UK giving an extra 4 years within which the targets much be reached.
The Directive also establishes bans from landfill for certain kinds of waste within various time scales between 2003 and 2009. In particular, the following substances/waste are affected:
Explosive, oxidising or flammable wastes
Infectious clinical waste
Tyres (whether whole or shredded)
Liquid wastes (except those suitable for disposal at an inert waste site)
Furthermore, there is a ban the practice of “co-disposal” i.e. the mixing of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and hazardous wastes within a landfill site. The Directive has been implemented in UK law through the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002.
Waste Incineration Directive 2000/76/EC
The aim of this Directive is to prevent or to limit as far as practicable negative effects on the environment, in particular pollution by emissions into air, soil, surface water and groundwater, and the resulting risks to human health, from the incineration and co-incineration of waste. This aim shall be met by means of stringent operational conditions and technical requirements, through setting emission limit values for waste incineration and co-incineration plants within the community and also through meeting the requirements of the Framework Directive.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ROHS) Directives were published by the EU in February 2003. When implemented in the UK they will apply to manufacturers, sellers or recyclers of electrical and electronic equipment (including household appliances, IT and telecoms equipment, audiovisual equipment, lighting, tools, leisure and sports equipment). The purpose of the Directives is to:
- reduce the waste arising from electrical and electronic equipment;
- improve and maximise the recycling, reuse and other forms of recovery of waste from electrical and electronic equipment;
- minimise the impact on the environment of the use of certain hazardous substances in the production, treatment and disposal of electrical and electronic equipment; and
- complement the existing legislation on landfill and waste incineration.
The provisions require producers to bear many of the costs for collection, treatment, recovery and disposal.
The exact mechanisms by which these aims will be achieved in the UK is currently uncertain and the Government is currently engaged in a consultation exercise to ascertain the best way forward.
End-of-life Motor Vehicles (ELV) Directive 2000/53/EC
The Directive applies to vehicle manufacturers, material and equipment manufacturers, dealers and scrap yard owners. The Directive aims to:
Prevent waste from end-of-life vehicles.
Promote the reuse and recycling of their components.
Improve the environmental performance of all those involved in the life cycle of vehicles.
All ELVs will have to be transferred to authorised treatment facilities. The Directive sets out minimum technical requirements for the storage and treatment of ELVs.
The last holder of an ELV will be able to deliver it to an authorised treatment facility free of charge, although for older vehicles, it is possible that charges may apply.
It will not be possible to de-register the vehicle without a certificate of destruction. Producers, dealers and collectors may be permitted to issue certificates of destruction, subject to certain conditions.
Regulations to implement the Directive are expected to be laid before Parliament during 2003.
Ozone Depleting Regulations 2037/2000
EC Regulations on Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) require the extraction of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) foam from goods such as fridges and freezers prior to disposal or recovery. The regulations also state that the CFC’s, once recovered, must be destroyed by an environmentally acceptable technology. From 1 January 2002, waste refrigerators were added to the European Hazardous Waste list which will be implemented in the UK through the revision of the Special Waste Regulations. The Regulations prevent whole fridges, freezers and foam containing ODS from being landfilled, incinerated or exported to any country outside the EU. However the use of CFC in domestic goods has ceased since 1995 and HCFC foam will cease to be used in 2003. The WEEE Directive will eventually require producers of white goods to bear many of the costs of their disposal.
EU Regulations are directly incorporated into Member States legislation without the need for enabling Regulations.
Hazardous Waste Directive 91/689/EEC
The Hazardous Waste Directive, or HWD, sets the framework within Member States of the European Community for provisions to control the movement of arisings of hazardous wastes from ‘cradle to grave’. The aim of the HWD is to provide a precise and uniform European-wide definition of hazardous waste and to ensure the correct management and regulation of such waste.
The HWD defines hazardous waste as wastes featuring on a list drawn up by the European Commission, because they possess one or more of defined hazardous properties.
In the UK, hazardous waste is largely defined under the Special Waste Regulations 1996. There is pressure to reform these Regulations to bring them in line with the European Hazardous Waste List. The Government has consulted widely on proposed repeal/revision of the Special Waste Regulations and possible enactment of Hazardous Waste Regulations. Such revisions are expected during 2003. When implemented, the HWL will extend the categories of waste subject to tight regulation as Hazardous Waste in the UK.
In addition to the key EU legislative/policy measures, there are specific National statutes which also have significance in influencing future waste management practices.
The Landfill Tax Regulations 1996
These Regulations created a specifically targeted levy on the disposal of waste in landfills. There are two rates of taxation: a lower rate of £2/tonne for specified “inactive” wastes; and the standard rate of landfill tax (for active waste) which was first introduced at £7/tonne and raised to £10/tonne, from 1 April 1999 with an annual escalator at £1 per tonne per year. The tax is currently £14/tonne for active waste. From 2005, the escalator will increase to £3 per tonne annually thereafter.
Waste Minimisation Act 1998
The Waste Minimisation Act allows a local authority to "do or arrange for the doing of, anything which in its opinion is necessary or expedient for the purpose of minimising the quantities of controlled waste, or controlled waste of any description, generated in its area".
The Act does not place any obligation on authorities to carry out such initiatives, nor does it allow councils to impose any requirements on businesses or householders in their area.
Examples of the initiatives which would be available to Local Authorities under the Act would include:
Raising awareness about how to stop direct mail (for example through the Mailing Preference Service);
Promoting the use of refill schemes and encouraging the adoption of less packaging by retailers;
Publicising local community schemes that recycle/reuse furniture and household goods, bicycles, computers and tools;
Working with those who have consumer information obligations under the Packaging Regulations (e.g. large retailers and schemes on behalf of retailers) to develop information on reduction, reuse and recycling for consumers; or
Developing and providing information and resources for reduction, reuse and recycling and commercial and industrial wastes.
The various legislative and policy frameworks summarised above will have a significant impact on waste management over the next decade. These will influence the way in which wastes are managed by the Council as summarised in Table 10 .
Table 10 Legislative Pressures in Waste Management
Change |
Impact |
BMW limits for landfill |
Phased limits on the amount of Biodegradable Municipal Waste that can be disposed of untreated to landfill may lead to increased landfill disposal and treatment costs and limited capacity at landfill sites. |
Bans on landfill of specified wastes |
Prohibition on landfill disposal for specific wastes, including tyres, liquid waste, and specified hazardous wastes may lead to increased costs and difficulties in securing alternative treatment/disposal routes. |
Classification of landfills |
Ban on co-disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes will reduce the capacity and number of sites available for disposal of such wastes as asbestos, contaminated soils and sludges. |
Separate collection and recycling of WEEE |
Pressure to segregate WEEE and secure recovery/recycling capacity will lead to short term increase in costs eventually transferring to manufacturers. |
Treatment of End of Life Vehicles |
Requirement to use authorised reprocessing facilities for treatment of ELVs. Increased costs arising from charges for treating abandoned vehicles and expected increase in number of vehicles abandoned. |
Classification of appliances containing ozone depleting substances as hazardous waste |
Requirement to provide separate collection and treatment of fridges and freezers. Provisions already in place, however continuing costs arisings from high costs of storage, transport and treatment of fridges. |
Wider categorisation of hazardous wastes |
Specific definitions of substances/articles which are to be treated as hazardous waste. Requirement to provide separate collection and treatment of hazardous wastes, including waste fluorescent tubes and discharge tubes, mineral oils, chemicals and some electrical appliances containing hazardous substances. |
National Waste Strategy Policies and Targets
Mention has previously been made (Section 1) of the principal targets for recycling, composting and waste minimisation set out in the Waste Strategy for Wales entitled ‘Wise about Waste’ (2002). Whilst these can be described as being the main requirements applying to the work of Local Authorities in providing waste collection and disposal functions, the Strategy contains other important policies and targets that should also be taken into account. These are summarised below.
Targets
Public bodies to reduce their own waste arisings:
- by 2005, achieve a reduction in waste produced equivalent to at least 5% of the 1998 arisings figure;
- by 2010, achieve a reduction in waste produced equivalent to at least 10% of the 1998 arisings figure.
Improved segregation of hazardous household waste:
- by 2003/04 all civic amenity sites should have facilities to receive and store, prior to proper disposal, bonded asbestos sheets. All sites should also have facilities for receiving and storing, prior to recycling, oils, paints, solvents and fluorescent light bulbs.
Stabilisation and reduction of household waste:
- by 2009/10 (and to apply beyond) waste arisings per household should be no greater than those (for Wales) in 1997/98;
- by 2020 waste arisings per person should be less than 300kg per annum.
Re-use and recycle construction and demolition waste:
- by 2005, to re-use or recycle at least 75% of C&D waste produced;
- by 2010, to re-use or recycle at least 85% of C&D waste produced.
Policies
The Assembly requires that Local Authorities take due regard to the principles of the ‘waste hierarchy’, Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO), Best Available Techniques (BAT), Precautionary Principle, Proximity and Self-sufficiency in making decisions and developing their strategies for waste.
These principles are explained below.
The Waste Hierarchy (in preferential order)
- Prevent waste production:
- develop clean production technologies more sparing in their use and wastage of natural resources;
- develop and market products designed to make no or little environmental impact from their manufacture, use or disposal (e.g. so that they last longer before they become waste, or they
are capable of refurbishment).
- Reduce/minimise waste production and hazardousness:
- ensure efficient use of resources within existing processes through tighter management control (e.g. within an Environmental Management System);
- reduce the hazardousness of materials or products which become waste (e.g. by changing from organic solvent to water based products or phasing out of the use of toxic metals and persistent organic pollutants).
- Re-use:
- re-use of raw materials;
- re-use packaging (e.g. bottles, pallets);
- refurbish and re-use other items (e.g. clothes, furniture, electrical equipment, household goods).
- Recover materials:
- materials reintroduced into the economic cycle (e.g. recycling of paper and glass);
- materials returned to the environment in a useful and harmless form (e.g. compost or sludge spreading to land as a fertiliser/soil conditioner).
- Recover energy:
- treat by combustion to produce a fuel for energy recovery (e.g. by gasification, pyrolysis)
- treat by mechanical means to produce a fuel for energy recovery (e.g. production of refuse
derived fuel);
- treat by biological means to produce a fuel for energy recovery (e.g. anaerobic digestion)
- use directly as a fuel without pre-treatment (e.g. by mass-burn incineration).
- Dispose:
- burning (incineration without energy recovery);
- landfill.
Best Practicable Environmental Option
Whilst the waste hierarchy applies generally to waste management techniques in terms of their environmental impact, each waste material should be managed by the 'best practicable environmental option'. For some waste streams, and in some circumstances, options nearer the bottom of the waste hierarchy may be the BPEO.
Best Available Techniques
BAT is defined18 as "the most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their method of operation which indicate the practical suitability of particular techniques for providing in principle the basis for emission limit values designed to prevent and, where that is not practicable, generally to reduce emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole."
Considerations to be taken into account when determining BAT include:
- the use of low-waste technology;
- the use of less hazardous substances;
- furthering the recovery and recycling of substances generated and used in the process and of waste, where appropriate;
- the nature, effects and volumes of the emissions concerned;
- the need to prevent or reduce to a minimum the overall impact of the emissions on the environment and the risks to it.
Precautionary principle
The precautionary principle is used by decision makers in the management of risk. Precaution should be applied where scientific evidence is insufficient, inconclusive or uncertain and where there are indications through preliminary objective scientific evaluation that there are reasonable grounds for concern that the potentially dangerous effects on the environment, human, animal or plant health may be inconsistent with the chosen level of protection.
Proximity
Waste should be recovered or disposed of as close as possible to where it has been produced in order to reduce the environmental impact of transporting it and to ensure that those producing the waste take responsibility as far as possible for dealing with it.
Self sufficiency
In line with the proximity principle, the waste planning process should ensure that there is sufficient capacity in terms of waste management facilities to manage the wastes produced in any given area. For some types of wastes this could be within a single local authority area, for others it could be within a region of Wales, within the whole of Wales, or the wider UK.
Finally, the National Strategy places emphasis on the importance of developing local integrated approaches to waste management. Integrated approaches are likely to deliver the most benefits at least cost.
Concerns and priorities of local communities
This section will contain the findings of a formal consultation exercise, including comments on the Draft Version of the Strategy, supplemented by findings from the Environment Agency survey of householder awareness of, and attitudes to, waste in Wales.
In Section 1, the patterns of waste arisings from the period 1996/97 to 2001/02 were examined. For the purposes of planning future waste services, it is necessary to forecast what trends in arisings will be like for the period 2002/03 to 2009/10. This task has been approached in two stages.
The first stage is to model the most likely trends in waste arisings that would be expected to occur in the absence of any significant intervention by the Council. This is referred to as the ‘base scenario’. This scenario is useful as it allows comparison against the various targets that have been established in the National Waste Strategy and through the Landfill Directive in order to identify whether such targets will be met, or whether further actions are required to address any shortfalls.
The second stage is then to examine the effects of various forms of intervention that would be available to the Council to ensure that relevant targets are met, and where practicable, exceeded. These are referred to as ‘strategic options’.
In the base scenario, total municipal waste arisings are assumed to grow at a rate of 1.0% per year over the period of the plan. This estimate of growth rate is based on the analysis of historical data for the County Borough area which show a declining rate of growth reaching 1.2% by 2001/02. For the purposes of this analysis, it is assumed that for 2003 onwards, the rate of growth would stabilise at around 1%. Nationally in Wales, the mean annual percentage growth in municipal waste arisings was 1.1% between 1999/00 and 2000/01 1.
In order to isolate the effect of various pressures leading to increases in the different fractions of the municipal waste stream, the projections have been based on two separate components. The first is that of the household waste fraction and the second is that of the commercial waste and other waste fraction (i.e. non-household sources, such as street cleansing, beach cleansing etc). For household waste, the primary reason for underlying growth is the increasing number of households. In Figure 5, the predicted growth in total number of households has been linked to the forecast total quantities of waste that they can be expected to generate. This shows that the total quantity of household waste is expected to grow naturally to reach 65,858 tonnes per year by 2009/10, representing a total growth over the arisings in 2001/02 of 61,560 by some 6.98%.
Figure 5 Forecast growth in household waste arisings – Base Scenario
Figure 6 Forecast Growth in Non-household Municipal Waste Arisings – Base Scenario
The second component that has been modelled, is the residual non-household waste arising from commercial premises, the Council’s own waste and other non-household sources. The
projected increases in arisings are shown in Figure 6. It should be noted that street cleansing
waste and other wastes that are normally classed as household but do not directly relate to household occupancy have been included under the non-household category in this analysis.
This shows an increase from 7,040 tonnes in 2001/02 to 8,409 tonnes by 2009/10 representing a growth of 1,385 tonnes, or a net increase of some 19.7% growth compared to current arisings. This equates to an annual growth rate of around 2% or around 173 tonnes per annum. Over the period 1996/97 to 2000/01, non-household municipal wastes across Wales showed an average annual percentage rise of 15.8% 2.
The combined effect of adding household and non-household sources is summarised in Figure 7 which represents the total growth in municipal arisings that are expected to occur over the period to 2009/10 in the absence of significant change in the current trend in arisings .
Figure 7 Forecast Growth in Total Municipal Waste Arisings – Base Scenario
This shows that by 2009/10, municipal waste arisings will have increased by some 5,683 tonnes per year from the 68,584 tonnes in 2001/02 to 74,267 tonnes by 2009/10.
The principle target applying to minimising growth in arisings is specific to household waste only. The National Target is as follows:
Stabilisation and reduction of household waste:
- by 2009/10 (and to apply beyond) waste arisings per household should be no greater than those (for Wales) in 1997/98.
In 1997/98, Bridgend County Borough’s household arisings were some 1.08 tonnes per household. Projecting this forward to 2009/10 would give a maximum household arising of some 61,307 tonnes if the National Target was to be delivered. In the absence of any change in growth rate (i.e. it remains at the assumed 1.0%), the actual arisings are forecast to be some 65,858 tonnes or some 1.16 tonnes per household. This means that in the absence of significant intervention to reduce household waste arisings, the target will be exceeded by around 80kg per household per year. By way of comparison, the mean weight of household arisings in Wales during 2000/01 was 1.2 tonnes per household per year 3.
Having identified that arisings per household need to be reduced, the following measures have been identified as mechanisms that can be put in place to address the problem of growth in household waste.
Strategic Options – Reduce household waste arisings by 80 kg/household/year.
- Education initiative for schools (Ecoschools) and householders (waste awareness campaigns)
- Promotion of home composting and provision of subsidised compost bins
- Establishing and promoting local community schemes for recycling/reuse of furniture and
household goods, bicycles, computers and tools (TRACK 2000)
- Working with retailers to develop information on reduction, reuse and recycling for consumers
and promote minimum packaging and returnable/reusable packaging
The second important aspect of the projections for the base scenario is the fate of waste arisings, i.e. how they will be dealt with. As explained in Section 1, the Council has entered into a long-term contract with Neath & Port Talbot County Borough Council with a waste management contractor for processing of municipal wastes through the MREC plant. This plant will significantly change the way in which wastes are dealt with over the period of the plan. Based on the performance of the plant as specified in the Contract and resulting from performance assessments during on-going commissioning trials, it is possible to model the fate of municipal waste treated in the MREC as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8 shows that by 2009/10 around 28% of municipal waste would be landfilled, either as process rejects or as combustion residues. A further 19.6% would be recycled and 26.3% composted as mixed municipal waste or as pre-segregated green waste from household waste amenity sites. The remaining 26.1% would be used to recover energy.
Figure 8 Forecast Quantities of Municipal Waste and How They Would be Dealt With – Base Scenario
Recycling and composting:
The National Targets for municipal waste recycling and composting apply to total municipal waste. These are as follows:
- Local authorities should by 2003/04 achieve at least 15% recycling/composting of municipal waste with a minimum of 5% composting and 5% recycling; and
- by 2006/07 achieve at least 25% recycling/composting of municipal waste with a minimum of 10% composting and 10% recycling; and
- by 2009/10 and beyond achieve at least 40% recycling/composting with a minimum of 15% composting and 15% recycling
Figure 9 shows how the forecast performance in recycling compares to the targets established in the National Waste Strategy.
Figure 9 Comparison of Forecast Recycling Performance Against National Recycling Targets
It is evident that throughout the plan period, the staged recycling targets of 5%, 10% and 15% will be achieved and exceeded by a substantial margin.
A similar assessment for composting is presented in Figure 10. The National Strategy target applies to source segregated composting, not municipal waste composting. The only fraction of that waste currently composted that would be eligible for inclusion would be the source segregated green waste collected at household waste amenity facilities. The mixed waste composted at the MREC would not be eligible for inclusion in the composting rates for the National Target. In 2002/03, segregated composting amounted to some 4500 tonnes. Projecting this forward and allowing for slight growth of around 200 tonnes per year indicates that the National composting target of 5% for the period 2003/04 to 2005/06 will be exceeded. The Target for 2007/08 to 2008/09 of 10% and the 15% target for 2009/10 would probably not be delivered if the National Target continued to apply only to source segregated composting.
Figure 10 Comparison of Forecast Performance in Composting Against Targets – Base Scenario
The strategy also sets combined recycling and composting targets. Figure 11 compares the forecast performance against the joint combined National targets or 15%, 25% and 40%. This demonstrates that for the period up to 2008/09, the combined target would be met, but due to the shortfall in composting, after 2009 the 40% target would be missed, unless further action was taken by the Council.
Figure 11 Combined recycling and composting against Targets – Base Scenario
It is evident that if the National targets are to be delivered, action will be required to increase the proportion of municipal waste that is segregated, principally for composting. A number of options have been identified as summarised below.
Strategic Options – Increase composting through source segregation.
- Investigate the feasibility of introducing a kerbside collection scheme for household green
waste and other compostable matter
- Permit deposit of trade green waste and compostable matter at household waste amenity
sites
- Increase the effectiveness of separation and recovery of green and compostable waste at
household waste amenity sites
- Develop green waste composting facility(ies) for Council grounds maintenance wastes
- Develop wormeries for Council catering wastes
Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW)
The second form of targets that would apply to municipal waste are the Landfill Directive targets which apply from 2009/10 onwards. These targets are as follows.
To reduce BMW disposed to landfill by:
75% of 1995 baseline levels by 2010
50% of 1995 baseline levels by 2013
35% of 1995 baseline levels by 2020.
From Figure 12 it is clear that all three of the Landfill Directive targets will be delivered from 2004 onwards. It is estimated that BMW disposed to landfill will comprise reject materials not suitable for processing through the MREC system, principally large items comprising mixed materials, such as a mattress or foam backed wool mix carpet. It is further assumed that combustion residues (grate ash) will not contain any biodegradable materials.
It is estimated that the biodegradable fraction of residual wastes from the MREC will comprise 10% by weight of the wastes consigned to landfill. During the plan period, from 2003/04, BMW to landfill will rise from 1,962 tonnes per year to 2,082 tonnes per year by 2009/10. This compares to the most stringent Landfill Target applying from 2020 onwards which would permit the landfill of 12,378 tonnes per annum of BMW.
Figure 12 BMW Disposed to Landfill against Landfill Directive Targets
Assessment of Effect of Identified Strategic Options
Arising from the assessment of the base scenario, it is evident that whilst the Council will be well placed in terms of meeting its obligations under the National Recycling Targets and the BMW diversion targets in the Landfill Directive, the National Composting targets for 2006 onwards will not be achieved unless further action is taken. It is also apparent that if waste arisings are allowed to continue growing unchecked, albeit at a slow rate, the National household waste minimisation target will also not be achieved.
In the preceding discussion, a number of Strategic Options have been identified which may assist in improving performance in these respects. In summary, these are:
Waste Minimisation Measures:
Education initiative for schools (Eco-Schools) and householders (waste awareness
campaigns).
Promotion of home composting and provision of subsidised compost bins.
Establishing and promoting local community schemes for recycling/reuse of furniture and
household goods, bicycles, computers and tools (e.g. TRACK 2000).
Working with retailers to develop information on reduction, reuse and recycling for
consumers and promote minimum packaging and returnable/reusable packaging.
Measures in increase segregation for composting:
Investigate the feasibility of introducing a kerbside collection scheme for household green waste and other compostable matter.
Permit deposit of trade green waste and compostable matter at household waste amenity
sites.
Increase the effectiveness of separation and recovery of green and compostable waste at
household waste amenity sites.
Develop green waste composting facility(ies) for Council grounds maintenance wastes.
Develop wormeries for Council catering wastes.
For some of these options, it is difficult to accurately predict their impact, other than assuming that they will have some positive effect, either singly or in aggregate. Therefore, the following assumptions have been made as to the effectiveness of the combined measures under each heading. These assumptions are summarised as:
Waste Minimisation
Aggregate impact : decreasing rate of growth in arisings to 2006/07, then increasing rate of reduction from 2007/08 onwards estimated as summarised below.
The effect of the measures identified above on the rate of change in total household waste arisings are summarised as:
As a result of the measures identified, waste arisings in 2009/10 would be expected to be some 3,307 tonnes per year less than would be the case if no minimisation measures were put in place. This will be equivalent to an arising rate of 1.10 tonnes per household per year by 2009/10. Compared to the National Target, which in Bridgend would be 1.08 tonnes per household, it can be seen that despite achieving a net reduction in arisings, the delayed effect of such measures as education and slow changes in packaging behaviour mean that the slow down in waste generation will not be sufficient to meet the target . However, this assessment does not take into account the effect of any National measures to minimise waste, such as action under the Producer Responsibility (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 as amended and the developing National promotional campaigns. It is probable that the shortfall of 20 kgs per household per year will be avoided as a result of the continuing development of National legislative measures and large promotional and awareness raising measures.
Figure 13 Predicted effect of waste minimisation measures on total household waste arisings
Segregation of waste for composting
Aggregate impact: Predicted net effect of measures identified above is summarised as:
% segregated green waste composting of municipal waste arisings |
|||||||
Kerbside green waste collection (1) |
Green trade waste at HA sites (2) |
Better segregation at HA sites |
Council green waste composting facility (3) |
Wormeries for Council catering wastes |
Aggregate effect % of municipal wastes composted |
Tonnes Composted | |
2002/03 |
0.00 |
0 |
6.50 |
0 |
0.000 |
6.50 |
4500.00 |
2003/04 |
0.11 |
0.07 |
6.87 |
0.07 |
0.003 |
7.13 |
4980.00 |
2004/05 |
1.11 |
0.14 |
7.25 |
0.14 |
0.007 |
8.64 |
6080.00 |
2005/06 |
1.65 |
0.21 |
7.78 |
0.21 |
0.014 |
9.86 |
6970.00 |
2006/07 |
2.20 |
0.28 |
8.45 |
0.24 |
0.014 |
11.17 |
7930.00 |
2007/08 |
3.28 |
0.35 |
9.11 |
0.28 |
0.021 |
13.03 |
9290.00 |
2008/09 |
3.82 |
0.42 |
9.80 |
0.35 |
0.028 |
14.39 |
10280.00 |
2009/10 |
4.40 |
0.49 |
10.57 |
0.42 |
0.028 |
15.88 |
11270.00 |
(1) Assuming mean collection rate of 1.5 kg per household per week with 40,000 hh covered by 2009/10 | |||||||
(2) Assuming mean collection rate of 350 tonnes per year by 2009/10 | |||||||
(3) Assuming 300 tonnes per annum composted by 2009/10 | |||||||
Repeating the assessment performed earlier, it is now apparent that the municipal waste composting rate, taking into account the effect of waste minimisation measures, will rise to exceed the National Targets of 5%, 10% and 15% as shown in Figure 14 .
Figure 14 Municipal Waste Composting Rate Adjusted for Minimisation and Enhanced Green Waste Segregation
The effect of combining waste minimisation measures with the predicted increase in segregated green waste composting means that the performance will be sufficient to meet and exceed the individual recycling and composting targets. However, combination of the effect of both sets of Strategic Options shows that this will be sufficient to ensure that the Council meets the combined recycling and composting targets of 15% and 25% to 2009, but that the Council would not meet its combined target of 40% total recycling and composting in 2009/10, underperforming by some 2573 tonnes. The total combined percentage will only be around 36.4%. This indicates that further measures will be required to increase the amounts of waste that are recycled.
The performance of MREC facility is largely determined by the complexity and efficiency of operations required to separate out recyclable fractions from mixed municipal waste. Where waste is pre-segregated, rates of recovery are likely to be improved, and there is an additional benefit that the quality of materials recovered tends to be better. This therefore points to the need to improve the segregation of recyclable waste prior to its delivery to the facility, so that it can be recovered for recycling without mixing it with unsorted municipal waste. The options available for improved segregation are summarised below:
Strategic Options – Increase pre-segregation of recyclable municipal waste prior to delivery to the MREC.
Options -
- Introduce household kerbside collection scheme for specific waste fractions
- Permit deposit recyclable trade waste at household waste amenity sites
- Improve segregation of recyclable waste at household waste amenity sites
- Develop recycling facilities for Council generated waste
The effect of these additional Strategic Options are predicted to be as follows:
Repeating the assessment now confirms that the effect of these additional measures will be sufficient to ensure that the 40% target for 2009/10 would also be exceeded with forecast performance being some 48.30% by the target date as illustrated in Table 11 and Figure 15. This amounts to 32,271 tonnes of municipal waste being diverted through recycling and segregated composting . The recycling rate alone by 2009/10 is predicted to be 32.41 % whilst the segregated composting rate is 15.88%.
|
Recycled (1) |
Composted (segregated) |
Residual mixed waste composting |
Energy from Waste |
Landfill |
Recycled + composted |
Tonnes |
% | |||||
2002/03 |
7832 |
4500 |
|
|
56938 |
17.80 |
2003/04 |
14149 |
4980 |
13386 |
15363 |
21954 |
27.39 |
2004/05 |
15836 |
6080 |
12419 |
15474 |
20529 |
31.16 |
2005/06 |
18254 |
6970 |
11631 |
15560 |
18311 |
35.66 |
2006/07 |
19434 |
7930 |
10748 |
15624 |
17283 |
38.53 |
2007/08 |
20935 |
9290 |
9467 |
15690 |
15937 |
42.38 |
2008/09 |
21967 |
10280 |
8508 |
15716 |
14966 |
45.14 |
2009/10 |
23001 |
11270 |
7392 |
15611 |
13685 |
48.30 |
End % |
32.41 |
15.88 |
10.42 |
22.00 |
19.29 |
|
(1) Recycled proportion adjusted to meet NAWPI Definition (i.e. excluding reclaimed rubble)
Table 11 Summary of the diversion of municipal waste assuming identified additional measures are taken to minimise waste and increase composting and recycling
Figure 15 Forecast waste management performance and National Combined Target for Recycling and Composting
Assessment against Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO)
This section of the strategy will contain the findings of a BPEO and life cycle assessment of the proposed waste management systems against the do-nothing option using the Environment Agency Software programme called WISARD.
Future development of waste management services
The waste management services, as described in Section 1, are currently undergoing significant changes. These changes have been identified as being required either to ensure that the service meets the test of Best Value (now the Wales Improvement Programme) or to ensure that the demands of the Landfill Directive can be met. In summary, the changes already underway or planned for the immediate future are as follows:
Measure |
Period |
Likely effect(s) |
Externalisation of the Refuse Collection Service following Competitive Tendering |
March 2003 onwards |
ü Improved efficiency and quality of refuse collection and cleansing service. ü Improved environmental impact due to newer and more efficient vehicle fleet ü Greater opportunities and experience in providing integrated collection service, including kerbside collection of green waste and recyclable waste. |
Commissioning of the Materials Recovery and Energy Centre |
2004 onwards |
ü Significant diversion of waste from landfill to meet requirements of the Landfill Directive ü Improved recycling and composting rates for municipal waste ü Simplified systems for delivering recycling services ü Lower impact on the environment arisings from local bring recycling sites ü Dealing with a large proportion of the County’s waste within the region (proximity principle) ü Waste management facility that meets Best Available Techniques criterion |
Development of three new Household Waste Amenity Sites dedicated to segregation of recyclable waste and improved segregation and recycling facilities at the existing site at Tythegston |
Late 2003 onwards |
ü Improved local access to services ü Reduced fly-tipping in northern areas of the County Borough ü Increased segregation, recycling and composting of bulky household and garden wastes ü Facilities for the collection of hazardous household wastes (asbestos, chemicals, fluorescent tubes etc_ ü Facilities for collection and recycling of WEEE items ü Improved provision of public information and education facilities on waste and recycling ü Lower impact on the environment from users transporting their waste to a facility |
Pilot study to open household waste amenity sites to traders in partnership with Welsh Assembly Government and Powys County Council |
Mid 2003 onwards |
ü Improved facilities/service for traders to recycle their waste ü Reduced fly-tipping of commercial waste ü Improved recycling and composting rates for municipal waste |
Appointment of two Enforcement Officers |
Mid 2002 |
ü Improved promotion and awareness of waste issues, particularly fly-tipping, litter and dog fouling ü Reduction in fly-tipping, littering and dog fouling ü Improved local environmental quality |
In addition to these changes, further improvements have been identified as being required in order to meet the demands of the National Waste Strategy, as detailed in the previous sections as Strategic Options. Furthermore, there are additional changes that must be effected to ensure that the Council can manage and implement the identified options. These additional measures are summarised below:
Measure |
Period |
Likely effect(s) |
Improved minimisation of the authority’s own waste arisings | ||
Undertake waste audit to identify and quantify waste arisings produced by BCBC and development of waste arisings recording, reporting and analysis system |
2003 onwards |
ü Improved understanding of the causes of waste generation ü Improved management of the Authority’s wastes ü Improved focus on waste minimisation ü Improved quality and efficiency in collecting and reporting information on arisings ü Reduced costs arisings from waste management |
Provide waste awareness training and information programme for employees, including package for induction of new employees |
2004 onwards |
ü Improved education and awareness of waste ü Improved management of waste |
Review central and local purchasing criteria and policy to identify low waste options for supplies, services and materials and opportunities to specify use of recycled materials |
2003 onwards |
ü Increased emphasis of minimising waste through purchasing ü Promotion of waste minimisation and use of recycled products through best practice demonstration |
Develop storage facility for marshalling redundant items for re-use in partnership with Track 2000 |
2004 onwards |
ü Increased re-use of waste ü Development of partnerships with Community Sector projects ü Reduced costs arisings from disposal of redundant items ü Improved segregation of WEEE |
Improved management recycling and re-use of waste produced by the Council | ||
Develop a central Construction and demolition waste storage, crushing and screening facility |
2003 onwards |
ü Improved recycling of construction and demolition rubble ü Promotion of secondary aggregate ü Reduced disposal costs |
Development of central WEEE collection facility for the Council’s own WEEE |
2004 onwards |
ü Improved re-use/reconditioning of WEEE ü Improved recycling of WEEE ü Contribution towards UK WEEE obligations ü Demonstration and promotion of WEEE segregation |
Improved household waste minimisation | ||
Enhanced waste education and awareness programme for schools, community groups & public and appointment of Sustainable Waste Technician |
2003 onwards |
ü Improved awareness and education on waste ü Promotion of re-use, recycling and composting |
Enhanced promotion and subsidised sales of home compost bins, low waste alternative products, and provision of composting advisory service (compost nurse). |
2003 onwards |
ü Increased home composting ü Reduced household waste arisings ü Improved awareness and education in waste ü Reduced waste collection and disposal costs |
Develop partnerships with community sector schemes to provide local furniture and other household items re-use scheme |
2003 onwards |
ü Improved awareness and education ü Promotion of partnerships with the community sector ü Waste minimisation |
Composting of municipal waste | ||
Development of central composting facility for the Authority’s grounds maintenance wastes |
2004 onwards |
ü Reduced waste costs ü Promotion of composting ü Replacement of peat based composts in grounds maintenance |
Develop segregated green waste collection and composting facilities linked to new household waste amenity sites for household and trade garden wastes |
2004 onwards |
ü Increased segregated green waste composting rate ü Promotion of composting ü Diversion of BMW from landfill |
Pilot trials of green/putrescible waste kerbside collections from households |
2003 onwards |
ü Increased segregated green waste composting rate ü Promotion of composting ü Diversion of BMW from landfill ? Possible increase in transport impact if collection requires separate vehicles |
Pilot study of wormeries used at Council buildings for kitchen waste composting |
2004 onwards |
ü Increased waste minimisation and composting rate (providing that wormeries count against composting target) ü Promotion of vermiculture for putrescible kitchen wastes ü Diversion of BMW from landfill ? Possible decrease in transport impact if reduced collection frequency is possible |
Enhanced recycling of municipal waste | ||
Segregated kerbside collection of recyclable household waste to further improve recycling rates at the MREC |
2004 onwards, depending on funding and results of pilot studies |
ü Increased recycling and improved quality of recycled materials ü Diversion of BMW from landfill ü Education and promotion of waste minimisation and recycling ? Possible increase in transport impact if separate collection systems requires to be deployed |
Development of a central waste marshalling, pre-treatment and recycling facility for the authority’s general wastes (paper, cardboard, wood, plastics, cans, metals etc) |
2004 onwards |
ü Increased recycling rate of Council’s own waste ü Improved segregation of waste ü Possible cost savings and improved efficiency |
Recycling of domestic and trade waste electronic and electrical equipment by provision of segregated storage at household waste amenity sites |
2004 onwards |
ü Improved re-use/reconditioning of WEEE ü Improved recycling of WEEE ü Contribution towards UK WEEE obligations ü Demonstration and promotion of WEEE segregation |
Reduction in hazardous waste generation and improved management of hazardous wastes | ||
Development of hazardous waste storage facilities at the household waste amenity sites (including fridges, chemicals, asbestos, batteries, fluorescent tubes, oils, etc) |
2003 onwards |
ü Segregation of hazardous wastes from the domestic waste stream ü Reduced environmental impact arising from improper disposal of hazardous waste ü Improved quality of recycled materials at the MREC due to lower rates of contamination |
Develop central storage facility for hazardous waste produced by the authority |
2004 onwards |
ü Segregation of hazardous wastes from the domestic waste stream ü Reduced environmental impact arising from improper disposal of hazardous waste ü Improved quality of recycled materials at the MREC due to lower rates of contamination |
These additional measures, together with the changes already underway will mean that the waste management services provided by the Council in the future will be significantly different from those that have been provided in the past.
Consequent to these proposed changes, the future waste management services/systems will comprise the following elements:
The Waste Minimisation Act 1998 gives power to the Council to make arrangements to minimise the generation of waste in their area; and for related purposes. Specifically, the Act applies to measures to minimise generation of household, commercial or industrial waste and allows the Council to do, or arrange for the doing of, or contribute towards the expenses of the doing of, anything which in its opinion is necessary or expedient for the purpose of minimising the quantities of controlled waste, or controlled waste of any description, generated in its area.
In pursuance of the discretionary powers under the Act, the Council has recently created two new posts dedicated to waste management enforcement activities and a further post aimed at promoting waste minimisation.
The two enforcement officers will take a proactive role in identifying and tackling persistent problems arising from illegal waste disposal, fly-tipping, littering and dog fouling. They will be based within the Technical Section of the Department of Architectural & Technical Services but will maintain close collaboration with the Environmental Health Department.
A further new post has been created to assist in promotion of waste minimisation activities, including educational campaigns, promoting home composting, business waste minimisation schemes and general awareness raising. The post holder will directly assist the Recycling Officer within the Technical Services Section.
Further promotion of home composting will be high priority for the Council and consideration is currently being given to expansion of the subsidised compost bin scheme. Furthermore, a pilot project will be undertaken using large wormeries to minimising catering wastes arisings from kitchens at Council premises. This system is in use elsewhere in Europe and America and has proven to be a highly effective means of minimising the need to dispose of waste food.
Whilst much of the day to day responsibility for promoting and supporting measures to minimise household and commercial waste, close links will be maintained with the Local Agenda 21 Officer within the Planning Department who also has a role to play in developing sustainable waste management in the County Borough and building links with local communities.
The Council has commenced a formal waste audit covering all activities, premises and services. The aim of the audit is to identify what wastes are currently produced and how they are dealt with and to identify opportunities for waste reduction measures and further recycling. Linked to the audit will be formal training programme designed to make staff aware of waste and how it can be minimised, re-used, recycled or dealt with by means other than landfill. Running alongside the waste audit will be a complete review of purchasing which will aim to produce a formal policy and handbook to promote sustainable waste and environmental management in purchasing decisions at all levels. This initiative will be led by the Purchasing Section working in close cooperation with the Department of Architectural and Technical Services.
Finally, the Council is planning a significant new initiative designed to allow unwanted materials and items arising from the Council’s activities to be collected and stored at a central depot where any items suitable for re-use can be despatched to community groups, Trac 2000, or sold on. Items beyond economic repair will be consigned either for recycling or proper disposal. In the past a significant amount of redundant furniture, electrical equipment and other items have been landfilled due to the lack of suitable storage facilities.
The newly appointed refuse collection contractor (Biffa) will replace the Council’s own in-house service during 2003. Consequent to the change, many of the problems that have affected the service in recent years will be overcome. The Contract specifies performance standards which will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the service to householders.
The MREC development will replace the conventional means of dealing with household waste collected by the collection service. Wastes collected during the refuse collection rounds will be taken to a transfer station for bulking before being consigned to the MREC.
The new refuse collection contractors have expressed a willingness to assist the Council in trials to collect green waste separate from the general black bag domestic waste. The trials will commence in 2003/04 to determine the most cost effective means of delivering this new service
Increasing the proportion of household waste that is separated for recycling may be necessary to achieve the combined municipal waste recycling and composting target of 40%. It is proposed that this be achieved by offering a new kerbside collection service for specified recyclable wastes. The exact mechanism by which this will be achieved is undecided at this stage, but the intention will be to provide a kerbside collection for such materials as glass, paper etc. Collected recyclable waste will be consigned to the MREC where they will be bulked and consigned for reprocessing by the contractor.
The Council intends to continue provision of a household waste amenity site in the Tythegston area and is committed to developing further such facilities elsewhere in the County Borough to improve access and service provision for other communities. The Tythegston site is being progressively improved to allow greater segregation of recyclable and compostable waste and such facilities will be incorporated into the new sites as far as is possible. All sites will be equipped with collection and storage facilities for a range of hazardous household wastes, including asbestos, oil, general chemicals, fluorescent tubes and batteries. Further storage facilities will also be provided for household electrical waste (WEEE), refrigerators and tyres. The contract for the operation of the new facilities is being tendered and integral to the contract will be the requirement to achieve a high degree of separation of recyclable wastes, including wood waste, metal waste, paper, cardboard, green waste, glass, beverage containers, textiles and plastics. The new sites have been designed taking account of best practice in separate collection of recyclable waste. Planning permissions have been gained for the new facilities and development is planned to progress during 2003/04. Materials collected at the household waste amenity sites will also be consigned directly to the MREC for bulking, composting or treatment as appropriate.
The newly appointed refuse collection contractor will be responsible for the provision of the Council’s trade waste collection service. This service will continue to operate in its present form, but traders will be given the option of using the household waste amenity sites for their recyclable wastes, providing that they deliver segregated waste that can be recycled or composted. They will not be allowed to use the sites for rubble or hazardous wastes. The opening of the sites to traders is a unique initiative which will be tested as a pilot study in collaboration with Powys County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government. Collected recyclable trade wastes will be consigned to the MREC for composting, bulking, or treatment.
The Council will continue to provide a free service by means of a dedicated collection. The service will be promoted through health centres and through the Health Authority. The service will now be provided by the new external contractor as an integral part of the main refuse collection contract.
Disposal of Abandoned Vehicles and Fly-tipping
The removal and destruction of abandoned vehicles will continue to be undertaken on the Council’s behalf by a private contractor. The Council is developing a more vigorous approach to identification of previous owners with a view to proactive cost recovery, and where appropriate legal action for unlawful disposal of waste.
The authority would wish to continue with the amnesty scheme. However, due to the volatile nature of the markets for scrap metal it is difficult to assess future costs. The authority will therefore extend the amnesty scheme indefinitely on a month by month basis subject to costs.
The clearance of fly-tipped waste on relevant land will continue to be provided by in-house teams from the relevant works units dependant on where the fly-tipped material is located (highways, ground maintenance, refuse etc). The newly appointed enforcement officers will be active in identifying and pursuing offenders, where possible.
Cleansing in public areas will continue to be achieved by manual litter picking and mechanical sweeping.
The Council is in the process of developing plans for an integrated facility to receive and deal with a wide variety of its own waste materials, specifically with the aim of increasing the proportion of waste that is reused, recycled or composted. The facility will probably be based at the existing Waterton depot, subject to planning permission and registration of exemptions from waste Management Licensing. It will be designed to allow segregated storage and processing of a wide range of materials: including on-site green waste composting; crushing and screening of concrete, bricks and general rubble; screening of excavation waste; storage of redundant construction articles; metal storage; storage of oils and other recyclable waste; baling of waste paper and other such activities. At the moment, many of the opportunities for re-use and recycling of such wastes are lost due to the space constraints at many Council premises and lack of facilities for dealing with recyclable wastes or composting.
Council wastes not capable of being re-used or recycled at the facility will be consigned to the MREC for processing and further recovery.
Policies, Objectives and Targets
Strategic Policies and Objectives
The Council recognises that the way in which municipal waste was managed in Wales is unsustainable and that radical changes will be needed over the next decade. The Council has already made a commitment to action to ensure that biodegradable municipal waste will be diverted from landfill and given appropriate treatment through the Materials Recovery and Energy Centre development. This is sufficient to meet and exceed its obligations under the Landfill Directive. Furthermore, the Council also recognises that the importance of the principles of proximity, achieving best practicable environmental options and the waste hierarchy and will take such principles into account in formulating and implementing measures to deal with municipal wastes that it collects. The Municipal Waste Management Strategy identifies further additional measures that will ensure that National targets are met for recycling and composting of municipal waste.
The Council also acknowledges that local communities have an important role to play in accepting their share of responsibility for minimising the waste that they produce, ensuring that their waste is disposed of properly and in promoting and participating in local schemes to re-use, recycle waste and to improve local environmental quality. Where practicable, the Council will seek to facilitate and support local community initiatives that further the objectives and policies set out in the Municipal Waste Management Strategy.
Ultimately, there needs to be a change in public attitudes to waste. The amount of waste that we produce must be reduced. Measures to minimise waste production will be given a high priority by the Council, but it must be recognised that the ultimate responsibility rests with every member of the community, including local businesses. Promotion of measures that can be taken to reduce waste and education to support a change in public attitudes, both at a local and a National level, will be essential if the National targets for waste minimisation are to be achieved.
The standards prescribed in relevant legislation and formal guidance, including the National Waste Startegy, shall form the minimum standards adopted by the Council in dealing with municipal waste.
Specifically, the strategic objectives underpinning the Municipal Waste Management Strategy are:
A. To set standards and targets and to monitor performance in implementing the Council's Municipal Waste Management Strategy and to review and update the Strategy on a regular basis.
B. To promote waste minimisation to householders and local business through the provision of information, advice, education and awareness raising campaigns and, where appropriate, to provide support for local schemes to reduce waste through such measures as home composting, re-use of waste and reduction of waste at source.
C. To promote the principles of sustainable waste management and waste minimisation, re-use and recycling by adopting and developing ‘good practice’ in the management and delivery of the Council’s services and purchasing systems.
D. To increase the amount of municipal waste that is recovered for re-use, particularly where such re-use creates employment and training opportunities locally.
E. To increase the segregation at source of municipal waste for recycling and composting, with due regards to the benefits and costs and to ensure that further value is recovered from residual waste either for recycling, mixed waste composting or energy recovery..
F. To ensure that contractors carry out the treatment or disposal of waste in a manner that minimises risks to the environment or health.
G. To take measures to prevent the illegal disposal of waste through litter, fly-tipping or abandoned vehicles, and that to ensure that where it does occur, that due consideration is given to taking appropriate enforcement action against identified offenders.
Specific Policies - Local Communities and Businesses
Local communities, community groups and businesses have an important role to play in helping to develop and implement the Council’s Municipal Waste Management Strategy. Changes in the way that waste is viewed must occur if the long-term targets are to be met. The Council will do all that it can to foster and support a change in attitudes in partnership with local communities and businesses.
The Council will continue to develop the partnerships that it has established with local community projects and environmental groups involved in environmental improvement, waste minimisation, re-use and recycling by providing appropriate advice, support and resources. The Council will also strive to ensure that its waste management contractors adopt good practice in dealing with municipal waste and will encourage their involvement in developing and implementing schemes and initiatives wherever practicable.
Specific Policies - Inter-organisational Co-ordination
There are a wide variety of agencies and organisations that have responsibility for waste, either in managing waste, advising on waste or in a regulatory capacity. Furthermore, there is benefit to be gained in working with neighbouring local authorities to ensure that regional frameworks and plans for waste are developed and implemented. The Council will seek to work in close co-operation with such organisations to ensure the efficient use of public resources.
Specific Policies - Waste Reduction and Re-use
The Council will continue to support, promote and develop waste minimisation education initiatives and campaigns within the Bridgend County Borough area and at a Regional or National Level.
The Council will produce and maintain purchasing guidance designed to promote good practice in purchasing supplies and services and will promote such practices to other organisations.
The Council will continue to develop and support partnerships with local organisations and schemes to collect municipal waste items for re-use, particularly where this creates opportunities of employment or training for disadvantaged people.
The Council will develop and maintain a central facility(ies) for collecting unwanted furniture and other items or materials arising from its own activities, either for re-use by the Council or for consignment to local re-use schemes.
Specific Policies – Recycling and Composting
The Council has entered into a long-term contract that requires that a minimum proportion of mixed municipal waste is recovered for recycling and composting. Where practicable and beneficial, the Council intends to explore ways to increase the recovery rate for recycling and composting to improve the quality of recovered waste by working closely with its contractors to identify opportunities to separately collect recyclable waste from the kerbside.
The Council will provide and maintain an adequate number of central household waste amenity sites designed to ensure maximum practicable separation of household waste for recycling. The Council is participating in a pilot project to allow commercial waste generated by traders in the County Borough area to deposit recyclable materials and green waste at the household waste amenity sites. If this pilot study is successful, the Council will consider making the scheme permanent.
The Council will develop a central facility for collecting and recycling wastes that are generated by the Council. In particular, this facility will be designed to allow separation and recycling of construction and property maintenance waste, metals, plastics, paper, cardboard, glass, oil, wood and organic waste.
Where practicable, the Council will seek to use composted green waste as an alternative to peat based products in landscape management and will help to stimulate the local market for compost.
Specific Policies – Waste Collection
The Council will work in partnership with its refuse collection contractors to ensure that refuse and recyclable waste are collected efficiently and effectively.
The collection service for clinical waste from householders will be maintained. In the future, a separate collection of household hazardous waste may be introduced depending on cost, practicability and legislative developments. In the meantime, residents will be able to deposit their hazardous waste at household waste amenity sites.
Specific Policies – Waste Disposal
The Council has entered into a long-term contract for the disposal of residual municipal wastes through waste to energy. This will reduce the quantity of waste that is disposed of to landfill and will ensure that the targets established in the Landfill Directive are achieved. The Council considers that recovering energy from waste is the most acceptable local solution for those proportions of the municipal waste stream that cannot be re-used, recycled or composted with due to regard to practicability and cost.
|
Waste Management Strategy Targets |
2004/5 |
2006/07 |
2009/10 |
Municipal waste recycled (%) |
22.5 |
27.4 |
32.4 |
Municipal waste composted (segregated) (%) |
8.6 |
11.2 |
15.9 |
Mixed municipal waste composted (mixed waste only) (%) |
17.7 |
15.1 |
10.4 |
Municipal waste recovered as energy (%) |
22.0 |
22.0 |
22.0 |
Municipal waste and energy from waste residues landfilled (%) |
29.2 |
24.3 |
19.3 |
Biodegradable municipal waste diverted from landfill (%) |
97.2 |
97.2 |
97.1 |
Reduction in municipal waste due to re-use schemes (%) |
0.19 |
0.28 |
0.33 |
Number of household waste amenity sites |
4 |
4 |
4 |
Household waste arisings (tonnes per household) |
1.15 |
1.14 |
1.10 |
When finalised, this Section will contain details of what we will do and when.
Management Structure
To be determined.
Education
- How we will promote waste minimisation and recycling in schools, e.g. through ‘All Schools Can Recycle’. ’Ringo’ and ‘Eco Schools’;
- How we will promote waste minimisation and recycling to the wider community, especially those able to initiate changes, such as shoppers. This should include using the procurement practices of BCBC as examples of how to promote waste minimisation and recycling;
- Regional or national educational and promotional campaigns we are participating in. Wales Waste Awareness Initiative, Clean Rivers and Keep Wales Tidy.
Procurement
How we intend to use our own procurement processes to promote waste minimisation and recycling/composting: -use of recycled paper, construction & demolition waste and the use of recycled or secondary aggregates in highway construction and repair, use of waste derived composts and soil conditioners.
Partnerships
Partnerships with key stakeholders including the community and voluntary sectors, the private sector and other local authorities. Consideration to role and responsibilities under section 16 of the Local Government Act 1999.
To achieve the objectives and targets set out in this Strategy, the Council will endeavour to provide the necessary resources, including capital and revenue. Inevitably, investment will be required and this will most probably be funded through a combination of sources, including the Council’s capital allocations, grant support from the National Assembly through Sustainable Waste Management Grant, supplementary credit approvals and bids for additional funding. Revenue costs arising from the Strategy will again most probably be funded through existing revenue budgets supplemented by funding from the National Assembly through Sustainable Waste Management Grant and other funding sources.
The current forward projection of capital and revenue costs and savings required to implement the Strategy at today’s prices are set out in Appendix 3. These forward projections will be regularly reviewed and where necessary and updated throughout the plan period.
Contents
1. Background
4. Complaints
5. Monitoring
6. Education and Awareness Raising
8. Appendices
1. BACKGROUND
Bridgend County Borough is at the geographical heart of South Wales and covers an area of approximately 25,500 hectares. The County Borough has an estimated population of 131,000. In addition to this residential population the tourist centre of Porthcawl attracts an additional seasonal population that leads to an increased demand on services.
The County Borough extends approximately 20 km from east to west, encompassing a mix of geographic areas including valleys, coastal areas, rural areas and town centres. The Ogmore, Garw and Llynfi valleys are situated in the north, and the County Borough borders the Bristol Channel to the south. The largest settlements are the towns of Bridgend and Maesteg and the seaside resort of Porthcawl. Bridgend is the largest of these settlements and is the administrative centre of the area.
Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) is committed to providing high quality services that address the needs of local people and represent the best possible value.
CONTACTING US
The Council is keen to involve the full range of stakeholders in the decision- making process and welcomes your views on the contents of its Litter Plan. You may wish to contact the Council in this respect by any of the following means:
- Write to us at Technical Services, Civic Offices, Angel Street, Bridgend CF31 4WB
- Contact the Waste Management Customer Helpline on Bridgend 643443
- Visit our website at www.bridgend.gov.uk
- Through your local councillor
In the event of an out of hours report, persons should contact the Bridgend County Borough Council Emergency Services and CCTV Control Centre at Bryncethin 720213.
2. POLICIES
2.1 Environmental Protection Act 1990
Council Duty
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA) imposes a duty on local authorities (and certain other landowners and occupiers) to keep specified land clear of litter and refuse so far as is practicable.
The Environmental Protection Act sets out enforceable standards of cleanliness for public places, which are set out in the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (COPLR). To comply with the law, the response times for cleaning up must be adhered to. BCBC have assigned zoning to the streets within the county as required by the COPLR. Each of these zones has different priorities for cleansing should they become littered. Resources are deployed daily to such areas as highways, public open spaces, car parks, amenity beaches and all commons regulated by the Council in order that the Council meets these requirements.
Duty of Others
The EPA also places obligations on others to ensure that land under their control is also kept free of litter and refuse.
Citizen's Duty
Leaving or dropping litter is a criminal offence and carries a fine of up to £2,500. The EPA gives the Council powers to prosecute litterers through issuing £75 fixed penalty notices. BCBC is currently making use of these powers along with a programme of education and awareness raising to prevent littering.
Citizens Right
In addition, every citizen has the right to take legal action to get litter removed where an area falls below the standard prescribed in the Code of practice on Litter and Refuse for longer than is allowed. The process for doing this is described in Section 4.0.
2.2 Enforcement Policy
The Council's Enforcement Policy reflects the duties and rights set out above. The primary objectives of BCBC’s Enforcement Policy are as follows:
- Public education
- Promotion of responsible dog ownership
- Reduction of litter within public areas
- Reduction in fly tipping incidents
- Ensure that traders comply with Duty of Care legislation
- Enforcement of relevant acts
- Prosecution of offenders
The implementation of this policy is dealt with in more detail in Section 7.0
2.3 Street & Highways Cleansing Policy
The collection of litter in public areas is a statutory function as defined under Section 89(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse. Resources are deployed daily to such areas as highways, public open spaces, car parks, amenity beaches and all commons regulated by the Council.
Private Land
The Council cannot clear any litter or rubbish on private land. Under such circumstances, the responsibility for clearing the area of rubbish would be the landowners'. The Council's Public Protection Department deals with enquiries of this nature through their powers of public nuisance.
2.4 Partnership Working
Co-ordination of Council Services
It is recognised that scope exists for litter picking efficiencies associated with grass cutting on verges and public open space. The Council will ensure that close liaison takes place between grounds maintenance and other cleaning services at operational/supervision level such that cleansing resources may be deployed to relevant areas immediately prior to the commencement of grass cutting. Such liaison should result in a reduction in litter picking workloads which arise when litter is fragmented and dispersed by grass cutting operations.
Additionally, the department employs a number of inspection staff and enforcement officers who, while not directly involved with the Other Cleaning service, travel throughout the County Borough during the course of their normal duties. These staff report instances of litter, fly tipping and other waste deposition via the department’s Customer Helpline, ensuring that incidents are addressed as quickly as possible.
Town Councils
A recent initiative involving partnership with Bridgend Town Council, whereby the town council receive additional funding from BCBC to employ an additional cleansing operative. This has resulted in additional cleansing resources being deployed within the Bridgend Town Centre area. This arrangement has yielded significant improvements in respect of cleansing standards and will, in conjunction with the recent regeneration programme, enhance the town centre environment for residents, businesses and visitors.
In view of the success of the Bridgend Town Council initiative, it is proposed that similar partnerships with other Town and Community Councils throughout the County Borough be pursued.
Private Sector
Concerns over litter dropped by customers of McDonalds as led to BCBC liaising with the business to arrive at an agreement for the company to clean-up litter arising from their premises/customers within the environs of the outlet.
Community
Members of the public are encouraged to participate and organise Clean-Ups within their local community. BCBC assist groups to undertake these events.
BCBC supports Keep Wales Tidy’s Afonydd Glan / Clean Rivers project by part-funding a Project Officer to develop and work with rivercare groups in the County Borough. There are currently 10 such groups taking ownership and responsibility for their local river environment.
2.5 Future Objectives
The Council is committed to ensuring that it:
- Achieves an increase in public awareness of responsibilities with regard to protecting the environment
- Achieves a significant reduction in instances of dog fouling/litter/fly tipping
- Assists local businesses in addressing problems associated with waste management issues
- Ensures that enforcement evolves to take account of developments in legislation and public attitudes
SERVICE DELIVERY
3.1 Cleansing
The current specification for the Other Cleaning contract was developed as an output-based specification which essentially focuses upon maintaining the cleanliness of an area rather than how often it is cleaned.
The area covered by the service is extensive, comprising 717 km of public highways and 114 hectares of public open space and commons. The function is integrated with the removal of fly tipped material and employs 55 operatives and drivers and 18 vehicles.
In addition, the Council undertakes town centre cleansing routines at Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg together with five smaller urban centres at Pencoed, Kenfig Hill, Aberkenfig, Pontycymmer and Ogmore Vale.
Street & Highways
This function is carried out by the Technical Services Department apart from land which is owned by other departments the Education Leisure and Community Services department as described below.
The area covered by the service is extensive, comprising 717 km of public highways and 114 hectares of public open space and commons. This litter clearing function is integrated with the removal of fly tipped material. Resources available for this service are 55 operatives and drivers and 18 vehicles. Cleansing operatives are assigned to specific areas of the county in addition to mobile crews who are able to react to problems as they occur.
In addition, the Council undertakes town centre cleansing routines at Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg together with five smaller urban centres at Pencoed, Kenfig Hill, Aberkenfig, Pontycymmer and Ogmore Vale.
The current specification for this contract was developed as an output-based specification which focuses upon maintaining the cleanliness of an area, in line with the requirements of the EPA, rather than how often it is cleaned. This enables the best use of resources.
A team of Cleansing Inspectors oversees the cleansing work to ensure that the contract specifications are being met.
BCBC’s Technical Services cleansing budget is currently £2.3M per annum.
Street Washing
Within Town Centres in areas adjacent to bus stops and takeaway premises, it is necessary to wash pavements using water pressure systems to remove food fats and grease and to ensure that the pavement areas are maintained to a clean and non-hazardous standard. Non-hazardous, pH neutral solution is used to assist cleaning.
In addition they council utilises ‘wet vans’ fitted with high pressure jetters to clean bus shelters and to assist with graffiti removal.
Chewing Gum
The Council recognises that the presence of discarded chewing gum within public areas has a significant impact upon street scenes, particularly within town centre pedestrianised areas where the problem is most prevalent.
During the 2002/03 financial year, the Council carried out an initiative involving the removal of chewing gum from strategic areas within the town centres of Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg. The initiative employed a private contractor who cleared the area utilising a low pressure, dry steam application. This method minimised the potential damage to grouting between the paviors of pedestrianised areas.
The Council will continue to monitor the accumulation of chewing gum within public areas with a view to arranging further remedial work. It is anticipated, however, that this work will be undertaken with a maximum frequency of once per annum, budgets permitting.
Drugs Related Litter
Occasionally cleansing operatives come across drugs related litter, usually discarded syringes, during the course of their duties. Under such circumstances, the syringe is removed using protective gloves and placed in a ‘sharps’ container for disposal.
Persons wishing to report locations of drug related litter during office hours should contact the Technical Services Customer Helpline on Bridgend 01656 643443.
In the event of an out of hours report, persons should contact the Bridgend County Borough Council Emergency Services and CCTV Control Centre at Bryncethin 720213.
Abandoned Trolleys
In instances where shopping trolleys are discovered abandoned on land falling under the Council’s control, the Council will attempt to contact the owner where this can be identified to arrange collection.
It is recognised, however, that the owners of shopping trolleys (normally local supermarkets) must take responsibility for the implementation of systems of control in respect of shopping trolleys. Consequently, the Council will, wherever possible, seek to recover its costs from the owner.
Flytipping
The majority of fly tipping is found in remote areas and the response time specified by the code of practice for its removal can be up to 2 weeks. However, the Council attempts to clear most fly tipped material on areas under its control within 4 days.
Fly tipping is on the increase, particularly since the introduction of the Landfill Tax. It is possible that businesses are illegally dumping their waste to avoid paying the tax. However, a large proportion of the waste does appear to come from household particularly domestic fixtures and fittings and garden waste.
Dog Fouling
Dog fouling is removed from relevant areas by cleansing operatives during the course of their normal duties. The Council provides suitable personal protective equipment in order that their work can be undertaken safely.
3.2 Fast Food Outlets
There are problems associated with littering in the vicinity of fast food outlets within the County Borough, particularly within town centres where large numbers of such establishments are located.
Due to the fact that fast food outlets are typically open late into the evening, litter deposition often takes place out of normal cleansing hours. Partly in recognition of this fact and in order that cleanliness standards are restored prior to the commencement of normal business hours town centre cleansing begins at 6.00 am each morning 7 days a week.
It is recognised that the proprietors of fast food outlets have a responsibility to control litter emanating from their premises and, accordingly, Enforcement Officers regularly visit such premises to discuss with proprietors their obligations in this respect, along with possible methods for controlling litter more efficiently.
3.3 Litter Bins
Provision
The Council will arrange to provide and maintain litter bins as follows:
- At least one per village
- One per commercial street on merit
- In car parks falling under the control of the Council
- At points assessed by need (e.g. near food outlets, take-aways, etc)
The Council is keen to promote partnership working and accept litter bin sponsorship in circumstances that will be of benefit to the wider community.
Emptying frequency
Litter bins are emptied by cleansing operatives in the normal course of their duties as requested.
3.4 Dog Fouling Bins
The provision of dedicated bins for dog fouling has been trialed but has not proved cost effective.
3.5 Mechanisation Strategies
Whilst the use of mechanical sweepers is not obligatory, such methods constitute an important component in achieving the standards and response times set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.
Mechanical sweepers are utilised in the channel sweeping of highways, surface sweeping of car parks and pedestrianised areas and augment litter clearance activities in town centres and early morning cleansing operations.
In addition, the Council utilises smaller ‘ride-on’ sweepers, which are effective in the removal of small litter and detritus, to undertake the cleansing of town centre footways/pedestrianised areas at Bridgend, Maesteg and Porthcawl.
It is recognised that litter removal is by necessity a labour-intensive operation. However, Bridgend County Borough Council is committed to the implementation of new and innovative mechanisation opportunities to increase the effectiveness of its cleansing operations. The Council will continue to monitor developments in this field with a view to achieving service improvements.
Parked cars
Where parked cars do not allow sufficient access to utilise mechanical sweepers cleansing operatives use brooms and vacuum machines to work around them.
3.6 Strategic Routes
In recognition of the importance of maintaining the highest cleanliness standards along strategic routes/County Borough gateways, the Council has recently increased litter picking/mechanical sweeping frequencies within these areas.
3.7 Emergencies
Persons wishing to report a cleansing emergency during office hours should contact the Technical Services Customer Helpline on Bridgend 643443.
In the event of an out of hours cleansing emergency, persons should contact the Bridgend County Borough Council Emergency Services & CCTV Control Centre at Bryncethin 720213. The Council operates a 24 hour response team available via a on-call crew. These are alerted via the central emergency call centre.
The procedures for addressing cleansing emergencies are set out in the Council’s Emergency Planning Manual.
3.8 Weeds & Detritus
BCBC are trialing new methods of addressing the issue of seasonal weed growth. Cleansing Operatives sweep the channel in addition to picking litter. Thus removing the growth medium for weeds and reducing the need to use chemical methods of weed suppression.
In addition to these road gutters the splitter islands on gateway routes and main roads are swept regularly.
3.9 Public Spaces
Housing Associations
BCBC clears fly tipping on Housing Association land by agreement, recharging the Housing Association for the service.
Schools
The removal of litter and refuse from education land, parks, sports facilities and playgrounds is the responsibility of the Directorate of Education, Leisure and Community Services which has separate contractual and operational arrangements for this work.
Beaches
The Technical Services department undertakes cleansing of the following amenity beaches on behalf of the Directorate of Education Leisure and Community Services.:
- Town Beach, Porthcawl
- Eastern Part of Sandy Bay
- Newton Beach (part)
In recognition of the high levels of usage of these areas, particularly during the summer months, the Council strives to achieve the following targets:-
May to September Inclusive
The required achievement is that the beaches shall be predominantly free of all kinds of litter between the hours of 0800 hours and dusk.
October to April Inclusive
The required achievement is that the beach is returned to a predominantly litter free area during the period between 1000 hours and dusk.
Dog bans are put in place on these beaches and are the responsibility of the Directorate of Education Leisure and Community Services. A dog ban is put in place each year between April and September on Rest bay in Porthcawl.
Parks
The Parks Department has responsibility for cleansing in Parks.
Events
Technical Services are able to supply bins to event organisers on request on a chargeable basis.
4. COMPLAINTS
Members of the public dissatisfied about any lapse in service or an agreed course of action which has not been carried out can make a complaint through the customer care service centre on 01656 643443. All complaints are logged through the department's formal complaints system.
If the areas in question fall within the control of the Council and are covered by the cleansing contract they will be cleared within the response time as outlined in the Code of Practice. If they are the responsibility of another department of the Council, i.e. parks, educational land, sports facilities, etc. the request for cleansing will be passed to the appropriate department for action.
If you are still not satisfied with the course of action taken, you have the right to take legal action to get litter removed when an area falls below the standard for longer than is allowed. If you want to take legal action, the following guidance applies:
You must give the Duty Body time to clear the land as laid out in the Code of Practice. Put your request to the Duty Body to have the rubbish cleared, giving the precise location and the type and amount of litter. If the Council is the Duty Body please use the Customer Helpline.
If the rubbish has not been cleared within the response time (bearing in mind there are different response times for different zones) you can take legal action to get a Litter Abatement Order to force the Duty Body to clean the area up. The process for doing this is described below:
There is nominal cost of £3.50 to taken a case such as described above to the Magistrates Court
§ The Complainant must give five days written notice specifying the nature of the complaint to the manager of that relevant land i.e. Local Authority
§ Following a complaint, a summons is issued against the duty body. If the complaint is successful a Litter Abatement Order is made.
§ An order cannot be made if the litter has been cleared away by the time the case comes to court.
Maximum fine for failure to comply is £2,500 plus up to £125 per day of non-compliance
For further advice on how to take this course of action you can contact Keep Wales Tidy on 029 2025 6767
5. MONITORING
5.1 LEAMS
(Local Environmental Audit & Management System (LEAMS) Cleanliness Index)
LEAMS is a system of monitoring of street cleanliness developed by the Keep Wales Tidy in conjunction with the All Wales Waste Management Benchmarking Group.
Random inspections of highways, car parks and public open spaces, etc. are undertaken on a bi-monthly basis. The LEAMS system investigates the issues in detail and takes account of factors such as dog fouling, graffiti, fly posting and vandalism along with the sources and specific types of waste.
A feature of the LEAMS system involves independent inspection undertaken by neighbouring authorities and Keep Wales Tidy. These inspections serve to verify the consistency of scoring levels across authorities, thus ensuring that routine inspections are undertaken on a like for like basis.
BCBC participates in LEAMS, and has developed it further to include monthly monitoring. The Council reports performance in cleansing, including LEAMS as part of its performance management system.
This data is also used to complete our annual Performance Indicator data to the Welsh Assembly Government.
6. EDUCATION AND AWARENESS RAISING
6.1 Provision of Public Information
In conjunction with the proactive implementation of relevant legislation in respect of litter deposition and dog fouling, the Council is committed to an educational, profile-raising programme to advise the public of correct methods of disposal of the various wastes and the likely penalties should they fail in this respect.
Customer Helpline (01656 643443)
Bridgend County Borough Council has set up a Customer Helpline. The public is invited to report locations of litter and fly tipped material and the Helpline can also be used to register complaints. This not only lets the Council know what the problems are but also helps to improve its services based on the complaints received.
The public can phone the Customer Helpline to report:
- Accumulations of litter
- Incidents of fly tipping
- Dog fouling in public areas
The Customer Helpline can also be used to:
- Request information on the service provided
- Request an explanation of Council service or policies
Zoning Maps
The COPLR states that it is for the duty body to allocate their land to the zones set out in the COPLR and to publicise these. Since this zoning requirement has been in place since 1991, land which is subject to the duty should have already been zoned. However the COPLR recommends that zoning should be reviewed periodically to ensure that it is appropriate and to reflect changes in land use. Zoning maps are available for inspection at the Civic Offices on an appointment basis.
Website
Information on the full range of waste management services delivered by the Council is available at BCBC's website (www.bridgend.gov.uk).
6.2 Campaigns
BCBC have worked in partnership with Bridge FM and the South Wales Echo to promote their 'Clean-Up the County' campaign. This campaign is raising awareness of the problems associated with litter and waste with local residents through news items and articles.
BCBC work with Keep Wales Tidy on their national campaigns addressing issues such as car litter, dog fouling and fast food litter in addition to local campaigns.
6.3 Programme of Schools Education
In recognition of the fact that litter deposition in areas near schools is particularly prevalent during school break times, scheduled cleansing is, where practical, undertaken in the hours following school break times.
However, the Council also attempts to take a proactive approach to litter deposition within school areas through consultation with school staff.
While it is recognised that, in the case of school pupils, education is preferable to enforcement, the Council will consider the implementation of relevant legislation in instances where other measures prove ineffective.
Eco Schools
Eco-Schools is an educational programme promoting environmental awareness that links to the full range of school curriculum subjects. It is also an award scheme that aims to raise the profile of schools within the wider community. The aim of Eco-Schools is to move from environmental awareness in the curriculum to environmental action in the school.
Bridgend County Borough Council is actively involved in the Eco-Schools programme and encourages litter clean ups, recycling and general waste minimisation practices through regular visits to schools within the County Borough.
7. ENFORCEMENT
7.1 Enforcement Officers
BCBC employs 2 fulltime Enforcement Officers Wardens who are responsible for the implementation of the provisions of the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This Act includes powers which allow local authorities to issue fixed penalty notices upon dog owners who fail to remove faeces deposited by their pets. These officers also deal with illegal fly posting issues.
Use of Powers
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides powers for local authorities to impose fixed penalty litter notices (FPNs) upon individuals responsible for depositing litter and street litter control notices against the proprietors of commercial and retail premises should their activities contribute significantly to the deposition of litter.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 also empowers local authorities to designate certain categories of land as Litter Control Areas which places a duty upon the occupiers of the land to keep it free of litter and refuse as far as is practicable.
The enforcement function is crosscutting initiative involving a range of stakeholders including other directorates within the Authority, the Environment Agency, Welsh Assembly Government and the Police Authority.
To date, the following work has been undertaken:
- on-site discussions with the public
- Fixed penalties for dog fouling and litter deposition have been served.
- EPA Section 47 notices have been served on traders.
- Fly tippers have been prosecuted.
- Dog fouling signs have been sited
- Additional bins have been sited in response to suggestions from public
8. APPENDICES
Code Of Practice on Litter and Refuse
The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (COPLR)
Copies of the COPLR are available from The Stationary Office and http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/litter/code/index.htm
Order details: ISBN 011753479X. Priced £17.99
TSO
18 – 19 High Street
Cardiff
CF10 1PT
Tel: 02920 39 5548
Fax: 02920 38 4347
E-mail: cardiff.bookshop@tso.co.uk
Capital and Revenue Forecasts
As attached.
BRIDGEND COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL | ||||||||||||||||||||
COSTS/SAVINGS OF PROPOSED WASTE STRATEGY * | ||||||||||||||||||||
2003/04 - 2009/10 and beyond | ||||||||||||||||||||
REVENUE COSTS |
2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
2006/07 |
2007/08 |
2008/09 |
2009/10 |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
||||||||||
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
£,000 |
|||||||||||
Waste Collection |
||||||||||||||||||||
Contract Price** |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
2100 |
||||||||||
Income from Trade Waste |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
-342 |
||||||||||
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
1758 |
|||||||||||
Waste Disposal *** |
||||||||||||||||||||
Transfer Costs |
1001 |
1031 |
1062 |
1094 |
1127 |
1161 |
1196 |
1231 |
1268 |
1306 |
||||||||||
MREC Costs / Disposal costs |
2388 |
2504 |
2626 |
2755 |
2890 |
3033 |
3183 |
3342 |
3509 |
3685 |
||||||||||
Landfill Tax |
264 |
291 |
357 |
428 |
502 |
580 |
662 |
749 |
841 |
961 |
||||||||||
3653 |
3826 |
4045 |
4277 |
4519 |
4774 |
5041 |
5322 |
5618 |
5952 |
|||||||||||
Other Functions |
||||||||||||||||||||
Street Cleaning |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
1847 |
||||||||||
Abandoned Cars |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
||||||||||
Income from abandoned cars |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
-20 |
||||||||||
Fridges & Freezers |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
163 |
||||||||||
Fridges & Freezers Grant |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
-100 |
||||||||||
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
1902 |
|||||||||||
Client Function |
||||||||||||||||||||
Staff Costs |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
218 |
||||||||||
Other costs |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
||||||||||
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
236 |
|||||||||||
Sutainable Waste Initiatives**** |
||||||||||||||||||||
Minimising Authorities Own Waste |
20 |
22.5 |
23 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
||||||||||
Recycling Authorities C&D Waste |
7 |
26 |
25 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
||||||||||
Waste Minimisation projects |
95 |
45 |
90 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
||||||||||
Composting Municipal Waste |
78 |
40 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
||||||||||
Recycling Municipal Waste |
57.5 |
300 |
303 |
320 |
320 |
320 |
320 |
320 |
320 |
320 |
||||||||||
Hazardous Waste |
0 |
11 |
25 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
||||||||||
WEEE |
0 |
5.5 |
25 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
||||||||||
Re-use schemes |
30 |
30 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
||||||||||
Other Measures |
75 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
||||||||||
Kerbside Collections |
100 |
471 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
||||||||||
Enforcement Officers |
60 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
||||||||||
522.5 |
1026 |
1086 |
1090 |
1090 |
1090 |
1090 |
1090 |
1090 |
1090 |
|||||||||||
TOTAL REVENUE COST |
8071.5 |
6620 |
7794 |
6321 |
6563 |
6818 |
7085 |
7366 |
7662 |
7996 |
||||||||||
CAPITAL COSTS |
||||||||||||||||||||
Minimising Authorities Own Waste |
0 |
12 |
45 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||||||||||
Recycling Authorities C&D Waste |
15 |
15 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||||||||||
Waste Minimisation projects |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
||||||||||
Composting Municipal Waste |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||||||||||
Recycling Municipal Waste |
920 |
10 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
||||||||||
Hazardous Waste |
0 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||||||||||
WEEE |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||||||||||
Kerbside Collections |
0 |
100 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||||||||||
TOTAL CAPITAL COST |
940 |
158 |
58 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
||||||||||
Assumptions |
||||||||||||||||||||
* All costs at 2003/04 prices |
||||||||||||||||||||
** No allowance made for growth in number of households (info awaited) |
||||||||||||||||||||
*** Waste disposal costs assume 3%increase in annual waste tonnages |
||||||||||||||||||||
**** Sustainable waste initiatives dependant on continuation of Sustainable Waste Grant |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
- Last Updated: 08/11/2007
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