Waste Policy Consultation

We Asked Tameside Council wanted to consult with residents on proposed amendments to our Waste Policy.

Proposed amendments that were being considered included charging for replacement recycling bins and moving black bin (plastic bottles, glass and cans) and blue bin (paper and cardboard) recycling collections to every three weeks. Green bin (non-recyclable waste) and brown bin (food and garden waste) collections would remain the same.

If adopted, the amended Waste Policy will help reduce operating costs and safeguard limited funds for vital council services that support the most vulnerable.

A public consultation was launched for 12 weeks, during which time members of the public, staff, anyone who works or spends time in the borough were invited to comment on the proposals. A pilot scheme also ran alongside the consultation period in three pilot areas to test out the proposals.

Households in the pilot scheme were written to directly explaining how the pilot scheme would work and were also invited to give feedback.

Waste services visited 1,893 homes and had nearly 700 doorstep conversations with residents to explain the trial and seek feedback.

Wider consultation: consultation open to the public received 1,610 responses, of those 1,410 provided comments. The top themes arising from these comments are as follows:

Blue bins already filled every two weeks (29.9%)
Supportive/understanding of proposed changes to black bin collection (20.4%)
These changes will increase fly-tipping (19.8%)
Black bins already filled every two weeks (15.5%)
Blue bins are too small (14.7%)
Reducing recycling bin capacity is reducing people’s ability to recycle (13.3%)
Larger bins need to be provided if the policy is to go ahead (12.3%)
Supportive/understanding of proposed changes to blue bin collection (11.3%)
You have put up council tax but reduced services (10.1%)
Respondent identified themselves as being part of a four or more person household (9.7%)

Pilot scheme feedback: The pilot consultation received 1,205 responses, of those 889 of whom provided comments on the scheme. The top themes arising from the pilot scheme feedback were as follows:

Supportive/understanding of changes to blue bin collection frequency (30.0%)
Blue bin full before 3 weeks (22.7%)
Brown bins were not emptied on time during pilot (18.7%)
Black bin full before 3 weeks (15.2%)
Green bin issues - larger or more frequent (11.2%)
Having to go to the tip since changes made (9.9%)
Changes may impact families / larger households more (6.3%)
Concerns that new scheme will/has increased fly-tipping and rubbish in the area (6.0%)
More critical that bins must be emptied on time (4.8%)

Consultation with the wider public and with those in the three pilot areas formed a huge evidence base for Waste Services to consider before making a decision on the waste service policy.

The feedback and insight from those in pilot areas and in the wider borough was reviewed carefully and cross-examined with important factors such as household size, property types, the feedback from the pilot areas compared with feedback from the general population and differences in opinion in different areas.

A number of mitigations were identified from what members of the public told us. Some exceptional circumstances will be granted to a range of different households, for example additional capacity for larger households, and exemptions from charging for low income households.

All factors considered carefully, it was decided that the proposed changes would be agreed, effective from 31 January 2022.

More detail on the findings from the consultation that took place are available in the outcome report presented to Cabinet on 15 December 2021, Item 9 in the supporting documents.

Consultation ran for:

12 Weeks

from:

28/07/21

to:

20/10/21

Documents