Agenda item

Report attached

The JEC received a report which provided an overview of household waste service delivery and associated challenges in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Since the beginning of the national lockdown and the subsequent ongoing restrictions on all aspects of daily life, each of the partner authorities have faced numerous challenges in ensuring that as many as possible of the range of waste services that are usually available can continue to be delivered to residents.

However, despite such challenging times, the team effort and professionalism demonstrated by the partner authorities – fully supported by the different external waste contractors and advice and guidance from other organisations across the waste sector – has meant that all residents across Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland have continued to receive their key waste collection services. This has enabled the statutory kerbside services, such as household residual and recycling collections, to be maintained without interruption. This continues to be achieved whilst ensuring that the health and safety of all staff and members of the public is of paramount importance and the highest priority in the ongoing service delivery.

During the initial stages of the lockdown the majority of residents were required to stay at home, so the amount of waste that households presented for collection increased. Since Easter, analysis indicates an average increase in recycling tonnages presented by households is 24% in Gateshead, 30% in South Tyneside and 28% in Sunderland. Despite this, the support received from contractors ensured that all waste transfer stations and facilities, both material recovery facilities, and the energy from waste facility continued to accept waste and operate as close to as normal as possible, with no impact on service delivery.

Mechanisms have been put in place by all authorities across the partnership to ensure staff safety, the temporary suspension of services where necessary and the introduction of alternative service delivery models. However, as lockdown eases, services are slowly being re-introduced across the partnership.

The challenges that the partner authorities have faced during the pandemic are not uncommon and most other local authorities around the country have also had to focus on maintaining statutory waste services.

Alongside local authority residual waste collection services, the national energy-from-waste (EfW) availability has remained consistent during pandemic, as have waste transfer stations for the different waste streams.

Across the country Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) have seen greater levels of disruption in comparison to residual waste treatment options such as EfW, but almost

Four in five MRFs are now reporting to be operating as normal.

Similarly, 79% of Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRCs) are now reporting minor or moderate levels of disruption to services (92% of which have identified operational capacity of 30-40%), with only 3% remaining closed. In mid April, 92% of HWRCs across the country were closed.

By mid-May, 15% of local authorities were experiencing ‘no impact’ on operational staffing levels. 78% of local authorities reported a ‘less than 20% reduction on staffing levels, a similar level to the two weeks prior. 6% reported that a 20-40 reduction, which is less than a fifth of the absence levels that were reported in the last week of March.

The greatest reported causes for disruption to collection services nationally continues to be staff absence due to self isolation (highlighted by 45% of local authorities, although this has fallen in recent weeks) 41% have identified the effects of social distancing is the next greatest  reported cause for service disruption, followed by absence due to sickness (32%).

As the pandemic continues, across the partnership, waste service operatives continue to receive positive feedback and thanks from all sectors of society, whether this is thank you posters in windows or notices and cards left on bins. It would appear that residents are recognising that alongside social care staff, shop workers, NHS staff, and many other key workers, local authority  waste services are essential to the functioning of society, whether this is in a period of crisis or not.

As more waste services continue to expand and become closer to ‘normal’ service delivery, further interim risk assessments will be required to be developed through close working between the three partner authorities and relevant service contractors. This will also enable contract management roles such as site inspections to be reintroduced and routinely delivered.

The partner authorities will also be subject to steep learning curve on the implications of the new ‘track and trace’ procedures and how this could impact on increased staff absences and, therefore, the continued delivery of waste services.

In addition, all local authorities have incurred significant additional financial costs to ensure services across all areas of their activities can be delivered safely within the current situation. The ongoing lockdown restrictions will prevent partner authorities from returning to pre-pandemic service arrangements and associated service delivery costs.

However, the longer some form of restrictions remain in place, the additional financial pressures could begin to impact on the services that the partner authorities are able to provide. The local government sector and their support organisations remain in dialogue with government regarding the additional costs required to support all aspects of local authority services during the pandemic. Within the waste services sector, feedback from support organisations such as LARAC suggests that their discussions with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have indicated that the department is keen to identify evidence of extra costs that local authority waste services are incurring. STWWMP will therefore continue to engage with relevant waste sector organisations and surveys and ensure that the service delivery challenges and associated additional costs will be highlighted as appropriate.