Agenda item

Officer: Shifa Mustafa

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.    Note the positive impact of the new Recycling and Waste Service on Croydon’s Recycling Rate; and

2.    Agree the approach to a communication plan (including the circulation of a recycling video to schools) described in the report.

The Leader of the Council introduced the report and commended the Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon for the bold decision he took to change the waste collection methods in the Borough, which had resulted in a 9% increase in recycling in just one year.

The Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon thanked the residents for their patience and understanding during the enrolment of new bins and noted that it had been successful as 14,000 tonnes of waste from the borough had been divert from landfill and incineration through recycling. There had been some negative stories in the media as to where recycling went so he had conversed as the Chair of the South London Waste Partnership Joint Committee to promote recycling; he had visited schools across the borough, worked closely with charities to reuse large whitegoods and furniture, encouraged the establishment of reuse centres, and helped with the creation of the video “Destination Recycling”.

The South London Waste Partnership Communications Advisor, John Haynes, introduced the Destination Recycling video and explained the purpose was to ensure residents had faith in where their recycling was going. The South London Waste Partnership was made up of four local councils; Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton, who had all contributed to the production of the video. There were five versions available, one full five minute video and four shorter videos and these were all available on the South London Waste Partnership website, in addition to being promoted through Facebook advertising. There had been 200,000 views of the film already, 55,000 views from Croydon residents and a further 2000 views on the South London Waste Partnership website. The video was launched in Recycling Week 2019 and the campaign would continue for a further two weeks.

The Cabinet were shown the video “Destination Recycling” – a short film telling the story of what happens to your recycling and rubbish.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon thanked the Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon but expressed concerns for the statistics in the report. In response it was confirmed that the Environment Agency compiled the figures, as opposed to the Cabinet Member, and suggested that the Shadow Cabinet Member could organise a briefing with officers to discuss the figures. The Head of Environmental Services, Tom Lawrence, added that he had met with Councillor Robert Ward regarding the discrepancies in the figures and some of the household waste figures had not been included in the final total; however, once this was corrected it had come to an increase of 48% of the household recycling rate in the borough.

Councillor Shafi Khan thanked the Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon and the officers for their hard work in such an important area. In response to his query it was confirmed that the Cabinet Member had visited three schools in the north of the borough, including a nursery, and would be happy for Councillor Shafi Khan to join him when visiting the local schools within his ward, Norbury and Pollards Hill.

The Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon explained to Cabinet that shortly he would be visiting blocks of flats where it was proving difficult to recycle where he would explore the option of introducing different bins and vehicle access routes. He noted that this would be discussed with the Ward Councillors before the site visits and when trialling new options.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.     Note the positive impact of the new Recycling and Waste Service on Croydon’s Recycling Rate; and

2.     Agree the approach to a communication plan (including the circulation of a recycling video to schools) described in the report.