Agenda item

Notice of Motion Regarding "The Recycling Service" - Given By Councillor Karen McGowan and to be Seconded by Councillor Michelle Cook

That this Council:-

 

(a)       welcomes Sheffield’s success in Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and Recovering household waste, with our achievement of one of the lowest levels of waste to landfill in the country at a rate of just 0.28% last year;

 

(b)       welcomes the new recycling service, noting that:

 

(i)         the removal of the blue box will be welcomed, as it has proven to be unpopular with local people;

 

(ii)        there is greater capacity in the new monthly 140 litre blue bin for paper and card than the old fortnightly blue box collection;

 

(iii)       the new 240-litre brown bin gives much greater capacity for glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles to residents who had used the blue box, and a broadly similar monthly capacity to residents who used the blue bin;

 

(iv)       that the greater efficiency for collection vehicles will reduce emissions, and notes further the innovative trial of electric bin lorries that have been engineered locally; and

 

(v)        the Council is maintaining a fortnightly black bin collection and has no plans to change this;

 

(c)        welcomes the value for money achieved in the new service, which provides a £750,000 saving to the waste service, and further notes:

 

(i)         that the Government’s austerity programme has made an unprecedented attack on public services since 2010 with local government facing the heaviest level of cuts;

 

(ii)        the continued impact of Government cuts and increasing demand for services such as social care means that the Council has had to make cuts of around £430 million since 2010; and

 

(iii)       that efficiency and improvements to services must be welcomed in this context, and no political group on the Council proposed alternative savings to the new recycling service in the 2018/19 budget; and

 

(d)       endorses recent calls by the Local Government Association for manufacturers to take responsibility for their production of unrecyclable plastics and work with councils to improve recycling, noting:

 

(i)         that only a third of plastic supplied to households is currently recyclable;

 

(ii)        that manufacturers could change to recyclable plastics or pay for complex recycling of other materials; and

 

(iii)       that Sheffield’s Energy Recovery Facility is an excellent resource in this context, allowing the recovery of energy from unrecyclable plastics.

 

Minutes:

7.1

It was moved by Councillor Karen McGowan, and seconded by Councillor Michelle Cook, that this Council:-

 

 

 

(a)       welcomes Sheffield’s success in Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and Recovering household waste, with our achievement of one of the lowest levels of waste to landfill in the country at a rate of just 0.28% last year;

 

(b)       welcomes the new recycling service, noting that:

 

(i)         the removal of the blue box will be welcomed, as it has proven to be unpopular with local people;

 

(ii)        there is greater capacity in the new monthly 140 litre blue bin for paper and card than the old fortnightly blue box collection;

 

(iii)       the new 240-litre brown bin gives much greater capacity for glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles to residents who had used the blue box, and a broadly similar monthly capacity to residents who used the blue bin;

 

(iv)       that the greater efficiency for collection vehicles will reduce emissions, and notes further the innovative trial of electric bin lorries that have been engineered locally; and

 

(v)        the Council is maintaining a fortnightly black bin collection and has no plans to change this;

 

(c)        welcomes the value for money achieved in the new service, which provides a £750,000 saving to the waste service, and further notes:

 

(i)         that the Government’s austerity programme has made an unprecedented attack on public services since 2010 with local government facing the heaviest level of cuts;

 

(ii)        the continued impact of Government cuts and increasing demand for services such as social care means that the Council has had to make cuts of around £430 million since 2010; and

 

(iii)       that efficiency and improvements to services must be welcomed in this context, and no political group on the Council proposed alternative savings to the new recycling service in the 2018/19 budget; and

 

(d)       endorses recent calls by the Local Government Association for manufacturers to take responsibility for their production of unrecyclable plastics and work with councils to improve recycling, noting:

 

(i)         that only a third of plastic supplied to households is currently recyclable;

 

(ii)        that manufacturers could change to recyclable plastics or pay for complex recycling of other materials; and

 

(iii)       that Sheffield’s Energy Recovery Facility is an excellent resource in this context, allowing the recovery of energy from unrecyclable plastics.

 

 

7.2

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, seconded by Councillor Andrew Sangar, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words “That this Council” and the addition of the following words:-

 

 

 

(a)       notes that in Sheffield, only 29.6% of household waste was recycled last year, the worst recycling performance in Yorkshire and ranked 314th out of 350 in the national recycling league table;

 

(b)       notes that the current recycling scheme only covers plastic bottles, cans, glass and paper and excludes all other plastic waste such as food trays and bottle tops, whereas these items can be recycled in neighbouring Chesterfield;

 

(c)        notes that in Watford, a Liberal Democrat-controlled council, they have weekly black bin and recycling collections and increased their recycling rate to 43%, significantly higher than the rate in Sheffield;

 

(d)       notes the widespread public concern about plastic waste following the BBC’s Blue Planet series and the growing call for local councils to recycle more types of plastics to reduce the threat to our ecosystem;

 

(e)       believes that, instead of cutting funding to recycling services, Sheffield City Council should invest in and expand recycling services to improve performance and no longer be towards the bottom of the league table and a national embarrassment;

 

(f)        notes the Sheffield Liberal Democrats will introduce a ‘Keep Sheffield Green’ fund where local communities can use the money to invest in recycling; and

 

(g)       requests the Cabinet Member for Environment and Streetscene to bring forward proposals to cover more types of plastic waste in Sheffield’s recycling service and make it easier for people to recycle their household waste.

 

 

7.3

It was then moved by Councillor Martin Phipps, seconded by Councillor Robert Murphy, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

 

 

 

1.         the deletion of paragraph (a) and the addition of a new paragraph (a) as follows:-

 

(a)       notes that:

 

(i)         Sheffield City Council was most recently ranked 314 out of 350 authorities for “Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting” as of 2016/17 (last collective set of data), as derived by letsrecycle.com from the waste reporting portal WasteDataFlow which is used by authorities to report waste figures to the government;

 

(ii)        although in 2017/18 only 0.28% of household waste was sent to landfill, over two-thirds (67.31%) was sent to the incinerator, with only 32.41% recycled or composted in this year; and

 

(iii)       notes that CO2 emissions from the incinerator have been growing steadily over the last decade, contrary to the national trend for reductions in emissions;

 

2.         the deletion of sub-paragraphs (b)(i) to (iii) and the addition of new sub-paragraphs (b)(i) to (iii) as follows:-

 

(i)         welcomes the trial of electric bin lorries and the introduction of plastic recycling into flats, something the Green Councillors have long campaigned for;

 

(ii)        understands, however, the concerns of residents over where the brown bins will go;

 

(iii)       notes this is an overall reduction in the number of litres of recycling capacity that may be collected;

 

3.         the deletion of paragraph (c) and the addition of a new paragraph (c) as follows:-

 

(c)        notes that:-

 

(i)         to change the waste services offered to Sheffield would require a renegotiation of the 35-year Veolia contract, which could be costly;

 

(ii)        Cabinet decided to retender the waste contract in January 2017;

 

(iii)       bringing contracts back in house would give the Council and Sheffield much more control over the services offered to residents; and

 

(iv)       residents of Sheffield, including opposition councillors, do not have access to full information about the Council’s contracts to know whether the service they are paying for is good value for money;

 

4.         the deletion of sub-paragraph (d)(iii) and the addition of sub-paragraphs (d)(iii) and (iv) as follows:-

 

(iii)       that the Council will ask officers to research further how it can influence the packaging used in retail in Sheffield to be recyclable and sustainable via a policy of incentives, disincentives and/or other means; and

 

(iv)       that the Council will request the Administration to fully disclose the Veolia contract to the public and opposition councillors for improved transparency, accountability and democracy in allowing others to access information that will facilitate alternate proposals which can then be considered for the benefit of Sheffield people.

 

 

7.4

After contributions from four other Members, and following a right of reply from Councillor Karen McGowan, the amendment moved by Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed was put to the vote and was negatived.

 

 

7.4.1

(NOTE: Councillors Kaltum Rivers, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy, Martin Phipps and Alison Teal voted for paragraphs (a), (b), (d), (e) and (g) of the amendment and abstained from voting on paragraphs (c) and (f) of the amendment, and asked for this to be recorded.)

 

 

7.5

The amendment moved by Councillor Martin Phipps was then put to the vote and was also negatived.

 

 

7.5.1

(NOTE: Councillors Simon Clement-Jones, Bob Pullin, Richard Shaw, Mohammed Mahroof, Joe Otten, Colin Ross, Martin Smith, Roger Davison, Shaffaq Mohammed, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Cliff Woodcraft, Ian Auckland, Sue Auckland, Steve Ayris, Gail Smith, David Baker, Penny Baker, Vickie Priestley and Mike Levery abstained from voting on sub-paragraph (a)(iii) of part 1 and sub-paragraph (c)(iii) of part 3 of the amendment, and voted for all remaining paragraphs and parts of the amendment, and asked for this to be recorded.)

 

 

7.6

The original Motion was then put to the vote and carried as follows:-

 

 

 

RESOLVED: That this Council:-

 

 

 

(a)       welcomes Sheffield’s success in Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and Recovering household waste, with our achievement of one of the lowest levels of waste to landfill in the country at a rate of just 0.28% last year;

 

(b)       welcomes the new recycling service, noting that:

 

(i)         the removal of the blue box will be welcomed, as it has proven to be unpopular with local people;

 

(ii)        there is greater capacity in the new monthly 140 litre blue bin for paper and card than the old fortnightly blue box collection;

 

(iii)       the new 240-litre brown bin gives much greater capacity for glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles to residents who had used the blue box, and a broadly similar monthly capacity to residents who used the blue bin;

 

(iv)       that the greater efficiency for collection vehicles will reduce emissions, and notes further the innovative trial of electric bin lorries that have been engineered locally; and

 

(v)       the Council is maintaining a fortnightly black bin collection and has no plans to change this;

 

(c)        welcomes the value for money achieved in the new service, which provides a £750,000 saving to the waste service, and further notes:

 

(i)         that the Government’s austerity programme has made an unprecedented attack on public services since 2010 with local government facing the heaviest level of cuts;

 

(ii)        the continued impact of Government cuts and increasing demand for services such as social care means that the Council has had to make cuts of around £430 million since 2010; and

 

(iii)      that efficiency and improvements to services must be welcomed in this context, and no political group on the Council proposed alternative savings to the new recycling service in the 2018/19 budget; and

 

(d)       endorses recent calls by the Local Government Association for manufacturers to take responsibility for their production of unrecyclable plastics and work with councils to improve recycling, noting:

 

(i)         that only a third of plastic supplied to households is currently recyclable;

 

(ii)        that manufacturers could change to recyclable plastics or pay for complex recycling of other materials; and

 

(iii)       that Sheffield’s Energy Recovery Facility is an excellent resource in this context, allowing the recovery of energy from unrecyclable plastics.

 

 

 

7.6.1

(NOTE: 1. Councillors Simon Clement-Jones, Bob Pullin, Richard Shaw, Mohammed Mahroof, Joe Otten, Colin Ross, Martin Smith, Roger Davison, Shaffaq Mohammed, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Cliff Woodcraft, Ian Auckland, Sue Auckland, Steve Ayris, Gail Smith, David Baker, Penny Baker, Vickie Priestley and Mike Levery voted for sub-paragraph (b)(v) and paragraph (d) of the Motion, voted against paragraph (a), sub-paragraphs (b)(i)-(iii) and paragraph (c) of the Motion, and abstained from voting on sub-paragraph (b)(iv) of the Motion, and asked for this to be recorded;

 

 

 

2. Councillors Kaltum Rivers, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy, Martin Phipps and Alison Teal voted for sub-paragraphs (d)(i) and (ii) and voted against paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and sub-paragraph (d)(iii) of the Motion, and asked for this to be recorded; and

 

 

 

3. Councillors Keith Davis and John Booker voted for paragraphs (a), (b), sub-paragraphs (c)(i) and (ii) and paragraph (d) of the Motion and voted against sub-paragraph (c)(iii) of the Motion, and asked for this to be recorded.)