Agenda item

To receive the report of the Portfolio Holder for City Management.

The Portfolio Holder for City Management presented her report which was taken as read and responded to Members’ questions in the following terms: 

• teams monitored the number of food waste bins presented each week; 

• certain parts of Exeter were more difficult with students and HMOs requiring annual educations given the change of residents and she had personally visited many. Some students came from areas where food waste was not collected; 

• the Devon Strategic Waste Committee had heard from Teignbridge District Council that they had run a pilot scheme where waste operatives had smart-watches to log where bins weren’t presented; 

• she and officers continued to work closely with the university to see how they encouraged students to deal with waste and also worked with housing officers to enable tenants to participate; 

• she thanked officers who had worked extremely hard to roll out food waste collection in the face of a number of challenges; 

• she would look to the minutes of the Strategic Waste Committee and report back on what else could be done to encourage more participation in food waste recycling but home composting was acknowledged as a reason for some households not participating; 

• there were a number of areas with flats where adjustments would be considered; 

• the Devon Strategic Waste authority would lead any studies and had last carried out a bin analysis in 2023 which showed that 40% of waste in black bins was food waste, before the roll out of collections. Of this. One third had been opened but was still edible, one third hadn’t been opened and the remainder included vegetable peelings which were appalling findings but interesting to see; 

• Denis the Dustcart could remain anonymous; and 

• there had been teething problems with food waste collection such as residents thinking that the same crew would collect at the same time and also dark mornings making it difficult for crews to spot the small bins. Mitigation had been put in place with more reflective stickers being provided to residents. 

The Head of Service – Environment and Waste responded to Members’ questions in the following terms: 

• the methodology for food waste collection was different from that of the green and black bins. People had become conscious of food waste but changes of habit and purchasing were required; 

• for food waste to be collected in the same way as other waste would require 9 extra staff and 3 extra vehicles therefore the approach taken had been to get the collections rolled out and the next stage would be to look at what Teignbridge had piloted, as they used the same software as the Council; 

• it has been a logistical challenge to deliver all the food waste caddies; 

• where there were believed to properties that had not received food waste caddies, Members should submit a through the Member Enquiry Process as this could be an error to be addressed; 

• compostable bags cost money and reusing bags kept costs down. The plastic would be taken out at the plant. Compostable bags did not breakdown easily in the anaerobic digestor therefore plastic was better. There had been teething problems as expected with any new system but this was a large project with 15 new staff and a lot of behaviour change required from residents; 

• it was fine to use poo bags for food waste; 

• plastic bags were separated from food waste at the anaerobic digestion plant with a splitter and sifter. 

The meeting adjourned at 7.20pm and resumed at 7.30pm.