Recycling Centre Infrastructure Strategy Aims Norfolk's
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Provision of Household Waste Recycling Centre Services Appendix M – Recycling Centre Infrastructure Strategy 2015 Review Aims Norfolk’s recycling centre service forms part of the waste disposal service provided by Norfolk County Council (NCC), with a core aim of reducing the impact of waste on the environment. The aims of the recycling centre strategy are set out below: • Review the existing strategy and determine whether it meets current requirements; • develop a strategic network of recycling centres that promote the waste hierarchy; • maintain or increase customer satisfaction; and • reduce costs and make savings to the authority; Executive Summary The existing service standard for recycling centre provision has been in place since 1985. Improvements to kerbside recycling, recycling centres and travel times provide an opportunity to review the standard 30 years on. Forecast population growth and inadequacies in some sites mean that development of the current network will be required over the next few years. The recycling centre strategy proposes a series of changes including updating the service standard to a more relevant ‘drive-time’, updating the current infrastructure to meet both current and future needs over the next decade and a number of cost-saving options including redesigning the network and reviewing the locations of sites to allow a smaller, more strategically linked, network of sites to cover Norfolk. Appendix M – Recycling Centre Infrastructure Strategy 1 1 Contents Appendix M – Recycling Centre Strategy ............................................................... 1 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 3 2 Statutory Obligations ....................................................................................... 3 3 Norfolk County Councils 20 Principles of Waste ........................................... 5 4 Existing Recycling Centre Provision .............................................................. 7 4.1 Recycling Centre Locations & Opening Hours ............................................. 7 4.2 Recycling Streams ...................................................................................... 8 4.3 Service Provision across the County ........................................................... 8 4.4 Visitor Numbers......................................................................................... 13 4.5 Tonnages and Recycling Performance ...................................................... 15 4.6 Customer Satisfaction ............................................................................... 21 4.7 Cost of the Existing Service ...................................................................... 25 4.8 Infrastructure ............................................................................................. 26 4.9 Agreed Changes to the Service ................................................................. 27 5 Alternative Recycling Facilities in Norfolk ................................................... 27 5.1 Kerbside Collection ................................................................................... 27 5.2 Master Composters and Community Composting ..................................... 28 5.3 Community Recycling Banks ..................................................................... 29 6 Pressures on the Recycling Centre Service ................................................. 30 6.1 Required Financial Savings ....................................................................... 30 6.2 Fluctuations in levels of waste ................................................................... 31 6.3 Predicted Housing Growth ........................................................................ 31 6.4 Other Major Infrastructure ......................................................................... 33 6.5 Site Constraints ......................................................................................... 33 6.6 Changes in Legislation .............................................................................. 34 7 Future Infrastructure Provision ..................................................................... 35 7.1 Maintain existing Service Provision ........................................................... 35 7.2 Review the Existing 8.5 mile Service Standard ......................................... 36 7.3 Improvements Required at Existing Sites .................................................. 39 7.4 Redesign of the Recycling Centre Network ............................................... 43 8 Conclusion and Recommendations .............................................................. 52 Appendix M – Recycling Centre Infrastructure Strategy 2 2 1 Introduction NCC operates 20 recycling centres across the county. Nationally such sites have many different names but all come under the generic term of Civic Amenity (CA) sites. In Norfolk, our CA sites are known as recycling centres. Over the last few years a number of changes have been introduced at Norfolk’s recycling centres in order to bring improvements and efficiency savings. A review of Norfolk’s recycling centre provision has been undertaken in order to identify further potential improvements and efficiency savings with the following aims: • To review our statutory obligations under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 51 and how best to meet those obligations within financial constraints; • To ensure we continue to meet the needs of residents in the most efficient and economical way; and • To explore opportunities that may exist to reduce cost. The review is based on: • historic and modelled analysis of waste throughputs; • historical and comparative performance against the national waste hierarchy of prevention, reuse, recycling, energy recovery and disposal in that order; • comparative service provision with other authorities; • site tonnage throughput and resident use; • accessibility; and • current and modelled population change. 2 Statutory Obligations The County Council, as a Waste Disposal Authority (WDA), is required under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 51, to provide reasonably accessible sites for the free disposal of household waste. There is no specified minimum required number of sites or mandatory opening times although they must be open for part of either Saturday or Sunday. Whilst the above arrangements allow for the deposit of household waste free of charge, legislation also allows for the sites to be made available for the deposit of household or other controlled waste by other persons on such terms as to payment (if any) as the Council determines. Advice from NPLaw indicates that the legislation does require "places" and that logically it must therefore depend on the size and nature of an authority's Appendix M – Recycling Centre Infrastructure Strategy 3 3 area. The authority will have to employ reasonableness and proportionality into any decision it takes and if it can show good reasons that are well thought out and having regard to all factors it would demonstrate a measured approach. Therefore the County Council could decide that one facility satisfies that duty if it could demonstrate that reasonableness and proportionality had been achieved, whereas other authorities may consider that they require more sites. It also means that not all wastes have to be accepted at all sites. Other wastes can be also accepted (household waste from non-residents or non- householders, or non-household wastes) and it is permitted for charges to be levied for the disposal of these wastes. The Controlled Waste Regulations 2012 define construction and demolition and including preparatory works as non-household. WRAP1 in their 2012 “Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) Guide confirm that construction and demolition waste from households is not defined as household waste for the purposes of Section 51 of the Environmental Protection Act. Examples of construction and demolition waste from households could include: • Doors and windows • Fitted kitchens • Fitted wardrobes • Inert material such as rubble and concrete, bricks and roof tiles • Plasterboard • Soil from landscaping activities • Any other building materials. However many local authorities appreciate that these types of wastes can be generated by householders and they therefore need to dispose of this waste. Several authorities have limited the quantity that can be disposed of for free within the recycling centre network, in order to minimise potential abuse from traders whilst providing a service to the householder. Norfolk is one such authority. Some authorities have sought to argue that, as long as a WDA has fulfilled its statutory duty to provide facilities that are reasonably accessible, available at all reasonable times and allow for household waste to be disposed free of charge, they could operate additional discretionary recycling centres outside of Section 51 of the EPA 1990 and thus charge for household waste received at these additional sites. Prior to April 2015, it was considered that a discretionary charge for disposal of household waste could be applied under through providing sites under Section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003. However, government have 1 The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy through helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way. Appendix M