Evaluation of the Waste and Recycling Programme Community engagement on Female Genital Mutilation 1 Executive summary At a time when councils face difficult choices about services in the light of reducing budgets, the LGA’s Waste and Recycling Programme supported several projects involving councils across England to run projects to help councils make productivity savings in delivering waste services. There were a number of aims that were common to more than one of the projects. These included minimising the amount of waste generated, increasing the level of reuse and recycling and combatting fly-tipping, an activity in itself that costs taxpayers tens of millions of pounds every year as well as being a burden on businesses and residents. Other aims included increasing the efficiency of a service, reducing costs and generating income. One project aimed to explore ways of reducing nitrogen oxide pollution through changing the refuse fleet to run on a different source of fuel. In the delivery of these aims, the projects used different tools and approaches. These included working with residents to help boost recycling rates, taking a more concerted enforcement and compliance approach where appropriate and working jointly with other partners. Other tools used by the projects included taking new approaches to procurement and refining specification, learning from other councils and making use of data. A table summarising how these tools were used to deliver projects’ aims can be found on page 4. In part due to the differences in the nature of the projects, and in part due to delays, there has been some variation in the outputs and outcomes achieved to date. Furthermore, because of some inconsistency in monitoring returns, it is difficult to provide a sum-total of the outputs from projects. However, the table on page 3 gives an indication of some of the outputs achieved by individual projects. 2 Community engagement on Female Genital Mutilation Project Examples of outputs to date Slough Borough • options appraisal produced Council • conversations had with National Grid regarding infrastructure changes • options appraisal available for other councils to use. Five London • financial modelling undertaken boroughs • business case presented to London Waste and Recycling Board • trading company established. Staffordshire Waste • detailed financial modelling undertaken Partnership • options appraisal produced. Cumbria County • intelligence on councils’ existing bulky waste collections gathered Council • review of third sector organisations able to undertake reuse of bulky waste in Cumbria • draft report produced. All London • partner councils recruited boroughs and • specialist consultant commissioned NHS England • discussions with NHS England held. Liverpool City • 70 recycling bags and boxes distributed Council • five recycling champions recruited • press release about project sent out • mass leafleting campaign delivered • two university reps recruited. Ipswich Borough • increase in recycling collected from 500kg to 800kg Council • new bins, bin frames and bin stickers provided • alleyway clearance and vegetation cut back • newsletters delivered. Bath and North • 146 labelled recycling boxes delivered East Somerset • 50 trolleys delivered • 100 flats moved to box stand collections. South Holland • a step-by-step ‘how to’ guide on establishing a company to deliver District Council environmental services is available for other councils. Manchester City • staff induction delivered Council • pro forma developed • section 46 and 87 processes signed off by legal department • in-cab data analysed. Evaluation of the Waste and Recycling Programme 3 A further positive impact of the project The projects have been running since was in bringing different partners together. summer 2015, and as expected have In some projects, delivery partners made varying degrees of progress to date. included the council and a range of A number of factors have influenced the outside organisations, including housing progress made by projects. These include: associations, local voluntary sector organisations and the police. In other cases, • Reduced funding from government and the the projects were led by several councils, resulting cuts to back office services brings bringing together politicians and officers about inevitable challenges in collaborating at different levels from different councils. with other councils. Where projects involved several councils, this sometimes The Waste and Recycling Programme has caused difficulties if partners were slow to also provided opportunities for networking respond or to share the necessary data. across projects. This has included attendance • Unforeseen circumstances – for at a national workshop to share best practice instance, severe flooding in December between the projects and to encourage 2015 had a significant impact on councils to work together on these and delivery of Cumbria’s project. future projects. • Restructuring of organisations – in some There is also learning to be taken around cases, restructuring within the council or what didn’t work. For example, it is possible within external partners caused delays that projects run through grant programmes to projects. like the Waste and Recycling programme are ‘doomed to succeed’. That is to say, • Conflicting priorities with other council grant recipients may be reluctant to allow departments – for example, colleagues projects that are unviable or underperforming in a council’s planning department to come to a halt due to the perception raising questions around the delivery of that they must demonstrate the value of interventions in some areas versus others. the project and the funding. However, This report, along with some of the project projects have been forthcoming about any outputs and other tools from the projects changes they have made to plans and any will be available on the LGA’s website at challenges experienced, and we do not www.local.gov.uk/topics/ think that this has been a major issue for environment-and-waste the Waste and Recycling Programme. Some projects tried to use rewards as a tool for bringing about behaviour change. While it is difficult to assess the contribution this made to the projects’ success, research from elsewhere suggests that levels of success are variable, and often the cost of such schemes exceed the savings generated1. 1 http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module =More&Location=None&ProjectID=18513 4 Evaluation of the Waste and Recycling Programme Introduction Shared Intelligence were commissioned Context: efficiency by the LGA in October 2015 to carry out an evaluation of the Waste and Recycling and innovation in local Programme. The programme was open service provision to English councils, and involved a mini- competition of bids from councils for Local councils are facing significant pressure around £20,000 each to help develop and make reductions in spending and identify promote innovative approaches to waste and efficiencies and savings. Funding from recycling. The funded projects each aimed to central government to councils is reported bring about efficiencies in councils’ services to have been cut by 40 per cent during the that could be replicable in other councils. course of the coalition government, and demand for council services is increasing. This report sets out the findings of the evaluation and is structured as follows: As such, councils across the country are challenging themselves to think • the context surrounding the Waste differently about how to deliver services and Recycling Programme while coping with reductions in funding. • the Waste and Recycling Programme Councils spend around £852 million per year • the evaluation and our methodology on waste collection2. Small savings therefore • summaries of the projects amount to considerable sums. For example, a saving of five per cent on councils’ collections • the aims of the projects and tools used spend would amount to £42.6 million. to deliver them In addition to cost pressures, attitudes, • case studies of the individual projects approaches and the wider legislative context • the impacts of the LGA Waste are driving councils to become greener. and Recycling Programme. Councils are becoming more reluctant to send waste to landfill, favouring disposal options higher up the waste hierarchy including waste prevention, minimisation, reuse, and recycling. Councils are also thinking more and more about air pollution and their carbon footprint, and the health and economic benefits associated with these. 2 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/418767/150320_Waste_Goods_ Procurement_Savings_Opportunities_final.pdf Evaluation of the Waste and Recycling Programme 5 The Waste and The evaluation Recycling Programme Our approach to the research was split into three separate phases. In light of the contextual factors set out above, the LGA’s Waste and Recycling Phase one involved a light touch review of all Programme was developed with the intention projects, including application bids and any of developing and promoting innovation in available monitoring data. We also considered approaches to waste and recycling that are other schemes and research into efficiency replicable across the local government sector. and innovation in waste and recycling, namely: The LGA submitted a call for applications • The Department of Communities and for grants of around £20,000 to the Waste Local Government (DCLG) Weekly and Recycling Programme