A meeting of New Forest District Council’s environment panel (15 October 2020) has recommended the next stage in a project to look at a new waste and recycling collection service for the district be put forward to Cabinet on 4 November.
Wheeled bins and weekly food waste collections are two of the changes included in the preferred option being recommended for further work towards a new waste service for the district.
The changes could also include a wider range of materials being collected for recycling, such as plastic pots, tubs and trays.
The meeting was advised how this proposal will help the area have a cost and carbon efficient service, minimise the amount of waste, and improve the quantity and quality of recycling.
Cllr Alison Hoare, portfolio holder for environment, said of the draft waste strategy, “Wheelie bins are part of a wider approach being considered so we can meet a legal requirement to offer food waste collections, and increase our recycling rate.
“We know that roughly 90% of all local authorities in England now collect waste in wheeled bins and we can learn a lot from the work they have already done.
A project team have been looking at what sort of waste and recycling system would be best for the area for nearly two years, including looking at systems already known to work well, and the public feedback from our survey in January 2020.
“There’s a lot of work still to do to get this right, including asking our residents for comments on what we plan, and making sure there is somewhere appropriate to send the food waste for recycling.
Any changes won’t come in until 2022 at the earliest.
“We are keen to hear from residents so we can take their views into consideration as we look at how a new system could work.
But waste minimisation sits at the heart of all of this and there is no question that change must happen.”
If Cabinet approve the recommendation, officers will do more work to assess what exact system would be the best solution for the New Forest and the draft waste strategy will be open for comments between 12 November and 10 December 2020.
Watch the environment panel meeting on YouTube
Read the draft waste strategy
