Agenda item

[Report of the Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods.]

 

This report presents Haringey’s Reduction and Recycling Plan (RRP) for approval.  Production of an RRP is a requirement of the Mayor of London's Environment Strategy and applies to all London boroughs.

The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods introduced Haringey’s Reduction and Recycling Plan (RRP) for approval. Production of an RRP was a requirement of the Mayor of London's Environment Strategy and applied to all London boroughs

 

The Cabinet Member informed that London Boroughs had a statutory duty to act in general conformity with the London Environment Strategy prepared by the Mayor of London. The London Environment Plan required London boroughs to produce a Recycling and Reduction Plan (RRP) to set out how they each would contribute to the Mayor of London's Environment strategy targets and comply with minimum service standards. This was required to be submitted by 20th December 2019. The Council's submission was contained in the appendix to the report. Section 5 outlined the Mayor of London's Environment Strategy and its objectives. Section 4.1.4 of the report illustrated the Key Mayoral requirements and the Council's compliance, which included the Council complying with a weekly food waste collection; carrying out the collection of the six main dry materials; being on track to achieve 45% recycling rate by 2025.

 

The Cabinet Member noted that as well as agreeing this submission, Members were being asked to agree changes to the Borough Plan. Section 4.2 outlined those changes. As there could be changes to the Recycling and Reduction Plan based on feedback from the GLA, Members were being asked to delegate those changes to the Director of Neighbourhoods and Environments to implement. Possible changes were highlighted at section 4.3. However, the Council had preliminary feedback from the GLA which can be found in section 8. The Council was also conducting an external review of recycling, funded by the GLA, details of which can be seen in section 9.

 

The Cabinet Member highlighted that stage one of the review had been completed and stage was due to be completed in January 2020.

 

The Cabinet Member asked Member to agree the report and its recommendations, which sought Cabinet to:

• Submit the recycling and Reduction Plan to the GLA;
• Agree to amend the Borough Plan to update the reduction in households waste targets; and
• Delegate authority to the Director (in consultation with the Cabinet Member) to make changes to the Recycling and Reduction Plan if feedback from the GLA required it.

 

[The Leader took the Chair at 20.47]

 

 

In response to questions from Councillor Dennison, the following information was provided:

• Regarding the recycling rate dropping to 32.9%, the Cabinet Member noted stricter legislative requirements had come into force on what was acceptable to be recycled and, as a consequence, a large amount of the recycling by the Council had been rejected. The Council was looking at ways to promote the education of residents to only include from household waste recycling products which were acceptable to be recycled.
• Regarding fly tipping, the Cabinet Member stated there was no conclusive evidence to show this had increased overall and noted there were times during the year where fly tipping was more prevalent. Further, the Council was reducing the cost of bulky waste collection which would lessen the likelihood of such material being fly tipped.
• To increase garden waste collection, the Cabinet Member confirmed that the Council was going to inform this better to residents to ensure they were aware that the Council offered such a service, especially in areas of the borough where there was more garden space.

 

RESOLVED

 

1. To approve the RRP for submission to the Greater London Authority;
2. To Amend the Borough Plan targets to be consistent with the RRP; specifically, that the Borough Plan target to reduce annual residual waste per household to 494kg in 2022/23 is revised to 460kg.
3. To delegate authority to the Director of Environment & Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Cabinet Member, to make changes as necessary to the Reduction & Recycling Plan following any further feedback from the Greater London Authority.

 

Reasons for decision

 

The recommendation to approve the RRP for submission to the Greater London Authority is based on the below points.

 

London boroughs have a statutory duty to act in general conformity with the London Environment Strategy prepared by the Mayor of London. The London Environment Plan requires London boroughs to produce a RRP to set out how they each will make a contribution to the Mayor of London’s Environment Strategy targets and comply with minimum service standards. The Mayor expects RRPs to be submitted to him for approval by 20 December 2019.

 

The Mayor has provided a template for RRPs and this has been used for the proposed RRP at Appendix A. The draft plan reflects how the Mayor’s policies, proposals and objectives will translate into action at the local level. It sets out the direction of travel that Haringey will take to contribute to those Strategy priorities and objectives, taking into account guidance issued by the GLA, our current services and performance and wider benchmarking.

 

The RRP will therefore provide a robust framework for managing the borough’s waste in an environmentally and financially sustainable way. It contains ambitious but achievable targets for the Council’s recycling rate and associated measures, whilst recognising local circumstances.

 

A summary of the key requirements of the RRPs and Haringey’s compliance is provided below.

 

            Table 1: Summary of compliance with RRP requirements

Key Mayoral requirements of Boroughs	Does Haringey comply	Comments
All properties with kerbside recycling collections to receive a separate weekly food waste collection service	Yes. Residents currently present food and garden waste separately which is then mixed in the vehicle. From April 2020 operational changes will be made to keep the food and garden waste separate.	Haringey also provides weekly food for estates and high-rise properties with communal collections. We will work with landlords to expand uptake.
All properties to receive a collection of, at a minimum, the six main dry materials: glass, cans, paper, card, plastic bottles and mixed rigid plastics (pots, tubs and trays)	Yes	We will work to reduce the level of contamination in our recycling collections.
For London to achieve a 45 per cent recycling rate for household waste and a 50 per cent rate for all local authority-collected waste (LACW) by 2025.	Yes	Haringey’s contribution toward the household rate target is modelled at 38% in line with modelling used for the Environment Strategy (and 33% for LACW). We have already committed to the household waste target in previous plans and this is consistent with contract targets.

 

 

The Mayor has commissioned Resource London (the partnership between the Mayor’s waste advisory board and national body WRAP) to provide support and challenge to boroughs in the RRP process. Through this support, consultants have been commissioned to carry out a review of Haringey’s recycling performance and identify opportunities for improving rates. This review has completed its first stage and findings are detailed later in this report and have informed the final RRP submission to Cabinet. In addition to the detailed review GLA officers have also provided direct feedback on our draft RRP. This feedback is also addressed below.

 

To amend the Borough Plan targets to be consistent with the RRP, specifically that the Borough Plan target to reduce annual residual waste per household to 494kg in 2022/23 is revised to 460kg.

 

The RRP asks boroughs to set targets for a number of common performance measures including annual residual waste per household. The proposed new target for this measure has been arrived at through a more detailed modelling process. The existing target in the Borough Plan is based on a 1% reduction/year, resulting in a target for 2022/23 of 494kg whereas the RRP target is based on modelled tonnage scenarios that reach Haringey’s 38% recycling target.

 

The target in the existing Borough Plan is less stretching and so this would represent an increased target. However, it is consistent with the overall action plan for reducing residual waste. Accordingly, it is proposed to amend the Borough Plan to match the Mayor and RRP targets.

 

To delegate authority to the Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Cabinet Member, to make changes as necessary to the RRP following any further feedback from the GLA.

 

The GLAs feedback on the draft RRP so far has been overwhelmingly positive (see paragraphs 8.1-8.3 below). However, the Council’s RRP may need to take account of any further comments from the GLA or changes introduced by DEFRA. For example, we expect DEFRA to develop its plans to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers within the period of the RRP.

 

Consequently, authority is sought for the Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods to make any further necessary changes to the RRP in response to comments from the GLA.

 

Mayor of London’s Environment Strategy

 

In May 2018 the Mayor published his London Environment Strategy. The Strategy sets out objectives, targets and policies for the effective management of London’s municipal waste and to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

 

The Strategy’s waste objectives are:

 

• Objective 7.1 - Drive resource efficiency to significantly reduce waste focusing on food waste and single use packaging;
• Objective 7.2 – Maximise recycling rates;
• Objective 7.3 - Reduce the environmental impact of waste activities (greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants);
• Objective 7.4 - Maximise local waste sites and ensure London has sufficient infrastructure to manage all the waste it produces.

 

The two most prominent requirements of the Strategy concern the household recycling targets and minimum service levels for London:

 

• By 2025 London as a whole must recycle 45% of household waste and 50% of local authority collected waste (this includes all municipal waste collected by the Council, including from businesses, parks and fly tips). By 2030 these targets increase to 50% of household waste and 65% of local authority collected waste. These targets are to be delivered collectively by local authorities. The Mayor recognises that authorities will contribute differently to these targets.
• A minimum recycling collection service provision to be provided by all boroughs by 2020 incorporating the collection of the six key dry recycling materials (including pots, tubs and trays) for all properties and separate weekly food waste collections for all kerbside properties (and also flats where feasible).

 

Other targets are:

 

• To cut food waste and associated packaging waste by 50 per cent per person by 2030;
• To send zero biodegradable or recyclable waste to landfill by 2026;
• London to manage net 100 per cent of all the waste it produces by 2026.

 

The Mayor’s recycling targets are predicated upon all London Boroughs having introduced residual waste restrictions. The guidance for completing the RRPs encourages boroughs to set out how they will deliver a “Package of recycling and residual waste services or planned service changes which have reviewed household residual waste bin capacity, frequency of collections and side waste collections” or consult on such measures. Haringey complies fully as we have already introduced a boroughwide fortnightly residual waste collection from ‘street level’ properties. Reducing residual waste capacity incentivises residents to increase their reuse and recycling. Additionally, we tell residents in communications that all their waste has to fit in their bins to encourage good waste management. We have conducted surveys that show side waste is not something happening at scale in the borough. We will review this periodically to check our approach remains appropriate.

 

The London-wide 2025 target for household waste recycling target of 45% is underpinned by analysis produced by the national advisory body, the Waste and Resources Action programme (WRAP). Their modelling attempted to show the maximum contribution that London could make to the 50% national household waste recycling target. The study found that, with specified service changes/improvements applied in each London Borough in 2020, an overall recycling rate of 42% could be achieved by 2022 for London.

 

WRAP also modelled a ‘business as usual’ scenario to reflect the recycling rate that WRAP believed would be achieved on the current trajectory. The modelled (differential) recycling rates were published for each London borough in the supporting evidence for the London Environment Strategy.

 

The modelling took into account variants between boroughs such as waste contract requirements and renewals, housing stock type and joint borough working arrangements.

 

The service changes/improvements modelled to achieve the London-wide 42% household waste recycling rate are:

 

1. Intervention for kerbside properties (street level) – Reduced residual collections, weekly separate food waste collection, adding all six dry materials to kerbside collections where not currently collected (glass, cans, paper, card, plastic bottles and household plastic packaging);
2. Intervention for flats (high rise) - All high-rise properties receive, as a minimum, the collection of five main dry recyclable materials (glass, cans, paper, card and plastic bottles) with an expected 40 per cent performance increase.

 

This modelling showed for Haringey a resultant recycling rate of 38%, which is consistent with the targets in our waste contract. It should be noted that the original modelling contained errors for Haringey and predicted a higher potential rate. This has been acknowledged by the Mayor and WRAP.

 

In reviewing RRPs, the Mayor has stated that he will take into account the following factors:

 

• contractual constraints that restrict the introduction of new services;
• the proportion of flats with lack of easily accessible and/or sufficient storage space for recycling;
• the proportion of rented accommodation (which can have an impact on participation in recycling services) and levels of deprivation; and
• the number of households with gardens (noting boroughs with fewer gardens produce less green waste for composting).

 

Recycling performance and benchmarking

 

In order to arrive at the services and activities in the RRP, initial data analysis and benchmarking has been undertaken, and key points detailed below.

 

Recycling performance has grown from very low levels in 2000 to the comprehensive collections of food and dry recycling for all street level and estate properties that we have today. Performance was 26% in 2011/12 and reached 37.4% in 2014/15 following the introduction of fortnightly residual waste collections in 2012/13.

 

The rate has since dropped (to 32.9% in 2017/18, the last year for which official statistics are available; data submitted to government for 2018/19 gives a rate of 30.2%, and 32.2% for quarter 1 of 19/20) due primarily to changes in the recycling market and relevant legislation that have led to much stricter controls on what can be accepted for recycling. We estimate these changes have had a 4% impact on the recycling rate compared to 2014/15.

 

Increasing the rate to its previous level and beyond requires significant investment in communications and compliance activities to increase uptake and correct use of services.

 

In complying with the Mayor’s model we are already preforming well against comparable boroughs. This is confirmed by benchmarking from the consultant’s review.

 

Haringey’s Reduction & Recycling Plan

 

The Mayor issued a template for RRPs which has been completed at Appendix A. The various sections of the RRP are explained below. Each section outlines key policy areas relating to the particular objective, core service provisions, behaviour change activities, with associated impact forecasts, and milestones to achieve targets (where appropriate). We have engaged with a range of internal and external stakeholders to complete our plan including North London Waste Authority and Veolia externally, and internally our Procurement, Planning and Carbon Management teams.

 

Key objectives of our plan are to:

 

• Increase the recycling rate to 38% by 2022 in line with the target set out in our waste contract and Borough Plan;
• Reduce fly-tipping and the deposit of waste on the streets, in line with our Fly Tipping Strategy;
• Grow the number of garden waste service users;
• Educate residents and businesses to reduce their waste and dispose of it properly;
• Halt the loss of any further tonnage from contamination through effective policies and procedures;
• Encourage more food waste recycling from all properties;
• Improve the management of waste from HMOs;
• Embed circular economy principles into the Council and our partners'/suppliers' operations;
• Engage with emerging national policy change to ensure the Council is optimally positioned.

 

The impact of future government policies such as extended producer responsibility, consistency in collections and deposit return schemes have not been taken into account in setting targets.

 

Waste reduction addresses the policy objective to drive resource efficiency and cut waste. In this section the following main areas have been set out:

 

• Fortnightly collections of residual waste from all kerbside properties have been in place since 2012/13;
• Active participation in the North London-wide Waste prevention programme coordinated by NLWA;
• Modelling of options to redesign waste collection services to drive efficiencies;
• Review of trade waste collection service;
• Encouraging behaviour change to reduce, reuse and recycle;
• Key policies to be confirmed as part of our Procurement Strategy 2020-2025.

 

Maximising recycling rates explains that the Mayor of London’s minimum service standards are being met for the majority of households within Haringey. It further details:

 

• Delivering other recycling services, notably commercial waste and educational establishments;
• Testing ways to reduce the contamination of dry recycling and scaling up where shown to be cost effective;
• Maximising recycling from all streams including street cleansing arisings;
• Targeting low performance areas including on estates and kerbside food waste through innovative behaviour change approaches and communications;
• Maximising recycling from NLWA activities including public Reuse & Recycling Centres and the segregation of recycling from the bulky waste we collect.

 

Reducing the Council’s environmental impact outlines:

 

• How and when HGV waste fleets will be ULEZ compliant;
• A new depot being constructed at Marsh Lane N17 with plans to construct to BREAMM ‘very good’ standard with 20 Electric vehicle charging points and photovoltaic and battery storage included on site;
• Current local configuration of disposal and bulking sites minimising emissions;
• Exploration of consolidated commercial waste collections;
• Results using the GLA’s online tool to determine performance of new proposed waste service options against the Mayor’s CO2 equivalent emissions performance standard (EPS) and carbon intensity floor (CIF).

 

The section of maximising local waste sites outlines:

 

• Contribution of the NLWA’s network of Reuse and Recycling Centres (RRC) to our recycling rate, including the site at Western Road site in the centre of Haringey.
• Plans to develop a new covered RRC that can accept business waste, being developed by the NLWA as part of the wider redevelopment of the Edmonton EcoPark site.
• How the seven North London boroughs, in their capacity as planning authorities, have jointly designated sufficient sites for waste management to ensure the region is net 100% self-sufficient.

 

In summary, Haringey has a comprehensive waste and recycling service supported by a number of initiatives, which as a minimum is needed to maintain the current recycling rate, as well as working towards improving it. Details of these are included in the RRP to demonstrate the positive contribution that is already being made by the Council to London’s environmental performance.

 

Initial GLA feedback

 

As part of the submission process for all boroughs, GLA officers provided an initial response to Haringey’s draft RRP. This is overwhelmingly positive, referencing the delivery of the Mayor’s minimum level of service for household recycling, with collections of the six main dry materials (paper, card, glass, tins, plastic bottles and mixed rigid plastic) as a minimum from all properties and separate weekly food waste from kerbside properties.

 

In addition it acknowledges:

 

• Our focus on contamination policies to boost recycling rates;
• Participation in national and regional communications campaigns;
• Activities focused on waste reduction and reuse in the community, including food waste, textiles and bulky waste events;
• Boosting participation in the garden waste collection service to increase recycling tonnages;
• Modelling options to redesign waste collection services to drive efficiencies;
• Offering recycling collections of the six main dry materials and separate food waste to non-domestic customers, including schools and businesses;
• Exploring consolidated commercial waste collections with local BIDs and business groups;
• Transitioning to low pollution fleets with 100% of waste fleet vehicles to be ULEZ compliant by 2020;
• Reference to the requirement for new developments to have suitable storage space for recycling.

 

The GLA also asked “Could the Council go further with its LACW recycling target (of 33%) to at least match the household waste recycling target (of 38%)?” This is the recycling performance measure for the entirety of the waste collected by Haringey Council (our current rate is 28.5%). This includes all business and other non-household waste including flytipping. We have less control over how much of this is recycled or composted in comparison with household waste (for this reason the traditional national performance indicator for recycling has always been based on household waste only).

 

The Mayor foresees reaching his higher targets for LACW (over household waste) through boroughs being able to drive up recycling from trade waste customers. However, in Haringey we have a relatively small share of the trade waste market in the borough through which to drive up LACW recycling levels. Additionally, we would have the challenge of achieving higher levels of recycling from flytips which would be extremely difficult. Over time our strategy will be to convert more flytipping into paid for trade waste, and encourage recycling of this waste where possible, but at present there is no detailed modelling currently available to quantify this. Accordingly, we have advised the GLA that we will not amend the target at this stage.

 

External Review of Recycling

 

As well as the high-level GLA feedback detailed above, the Mayor has also made support available to boroughs for preparation of their RRP through Resource London. Resource London is a partnership between the Mayor’s London Waste and Advisory Board (LWARB) and the national advisory body, WRAP (Waste and Resource Action Programme). Resource London is funding the support. This has taken the form of them jointly commissioning with Haringey an external review of the Council’s approach to recycling, and opportunities for improving recycling rates. This is in the context of the drop in the recycling rate described above and the fact that our service closely matches the Mayor’s optimal service configuration. Our plan presented here takes account of the external review recommendations. There is no suggestion that significant actions beyond the Mayor’s model are being missed by Haringey.

 

The review, carried out by consultants Ricardo, began in September and includes:

 

• Analysis of existing data and information to enable benchmarking;
• Review of key policies and communications;
• Interviews with key staff;
• An operational review;
• Site visits – collection service and the Material Recovery Facility for separating dry recycling;
• Final report to be issued by end of January 2020.

 

A summary of the stage 1 review is below:

 

“Ricardo Energy & Environment has been commissioned by Resource London to conduct a waste and recycling service review for Haringey Council. The review is being conducted in two stages:

 

Stage 1: Service Review - A review of recycling rate performance over the last five years, identifying areas for improvement in line with the requirements of the Council’s Reduction and Recycling Plan (RRP) submission to the GLA;

 

Stage 2: Improvement Plan and Commercial Waste Review - A more detailed review into selected areas including the performance of the commercial waste service to determine potential improvements, opportunities to drive efficiencies and generate additional revenue.

 

“The Stage 1 review work began in September and comprehensive review work has been carried out, including reviewing service performance data, meetings with various members of Council staff, observations of the recycling collection systems in action and a visit to the Materials Recovery Facility to which Haringey’s mixed dry recycling is delivered. A key element of this stage of work has been to review Haringey’s RRP and the Council’s current suite of waste services within the context of the Mayor of London’s Environment Strategy (LES) minimum service delivery level requirements, namely: -

 

• All properties with kerbside recycling collections to receive a separate weekly food waste collection service;
• All properties to receive a collection of, at a minimum, the six main dry materials, glass, cans, paper, card, plastic bottles and mixed rigid plastics (pots, tubs and trays); and
• For Councils to set reduction and recycling targets that ‘should be stretching and recognise local circumstances’ which will contribute to the Mayor’s targets of achieving a 45 per cent recycling rate for household waste by 2025 and a 50 per cent recycling rate for local authority collected waste (LACW) by 2025.

 

“The conclusions and recommendations from Stage 1 demonstrate that the Council’s recycling collection services and future plans for the separate treatment of food waste (currently mixed with garden waste) are in line with the requirements of the LES recycling collection service model. In addition, the review has confirmed key actions the Council is taking to improve dry recycling performance by tackling contamination levels. This and other initiatives such as increasing garden waste service uptake, will enable the Council to work towards the target commitments set out in the Council’s RRP.

 

“The Stage 2 work is due to completed by the end of January 2019.”

 

The GLA are happy for the RRP to be recommended to Cabinet in advance of the completion of the Stage 2 review. Based on initial feedback, the Stage 2 report is not expected to significantly alter Haringey’s RRP, rather strengthen the existing framework for actions to improve waste reduction and recycling.

 

Alternative options considered

 

The Council must submit an RRP to meet its statutory duty to be in general conformity with the Mayor of London's Environment Strategy. Failure to produce a RRP may lead to the Mayor using his powers to direct a Waste Authority in London where he considers that it is necessary for the purposes of the implementation of the municipal waste elements of the Environment Strategy. Therefore, the option of not submitting an RRP has not been considered further and is not recommended.

 

The RRP is expected to demonstrate an appropriate contribution to the Mayor’s London-wide targets. We are confident that we have proposed targets that are stretching and appropriate to our local circumstances. A plan with less ambitious targets would be liable to challenge from the Mayor. Therefore, an alternative RRP is not recommended.