Greens slam council's waste strategy

The Green Party will strongly criticise a report passed by the Council last month on their waste strategy in the Full Council meeting today (Dec 3).

Coun Creasy said, “The Council’s long term PFI contract with Veolia , which owns the incinerator, means that any more kerbside recycling will have to be funded by savings in other council services or by increasing Council Tax. The Council’s public consultation on the strategy is based on Veolia’s own analysis of the city’s waste needs, which is not independent. And despite promises to be comitted to carbon reduction and best environmental practice, the report doesn’t include any proposals for reduction, re-use, repair and composting.

"We welcome the debate on a new waste strategy, but the options offered by the Lib Dems are not good enough. They need to go back to the drawing board”

ENDS.

Notice Of Motion Given By Councillor Helen Mirfin-Boukouris

That this Council: -

(a) is proud to note that this Council has increased the percentage of
household waste which is recycled from a meagre 4% in 2001 to an impressive 27% currently;

(b) is also proud to note that Sheffield has one of the lowest landfill
rates in England, at less than 20% of waste produced, and further notes that as a result of the Council’s bold decision to recover energy from waste via the city’s Energy Recovery Facility, heat is provided to over 140 buildings in the City Centre on the District Heating network including Ponds Forge, the Town Hall, Weston Park Hospital and the City Hall;

(c) notes that the district heating system removes the need to burn 13.6 million litres of oil per year and prevents 21,000 tonnes of CO2 from being released across the City each year;

(d) believes that, although these achievements are impressive, it is
vital that the Council continues to improve upon this good work, and continues to increase the percentage of waste that is recycled and reduce the percentage of waste sent to landfill;

(e) notes that the report ‘Waste Strategy Development Public Consultation Documents’ was approved by the Cabinet on 12th November, 2008;

(f) further notes that this report authorises a consultation programme
with Sheffield residents;

(g) is pleased that the Council is seeking to invite local people to have their say on this important issue;

(h) is, however, concerned that Veolia, the Council’s contractor, are
also doing a very similar consultation exercise at the moment in the form of the ‘Sheffield Waste Management Survey 2008’, which is surely at the cost of the local taxpayer;

(i) furthermore considers that carrying out two surveys on the same
subject at the same time does not appear to be a very prudent use of taxpayers money, given that the cost of the Council’s consultation programme alone totals £70,000;

(j) has further concerns that the Council is consulting on a possible
service reduction for the 45,000 households in the City who currently have a green bin collection;

(k) notes that, prior to their becoming the current administration, the
Liberal Democrats said that they will ‘expand recycling services through kerbside collections for an extra material’; and

(l) has concerns that the Liberal Democrats now, in fact, appear to be consulting on a possible reduction in kerbside collections.

Amendment to NOM 11 on waste strategy
Proposed by Cllr Creasy, seconded by Cllr Murphy
Delete all after “This council” and replace with:

a. Welcomes the reference in the “Waste strategy development public consultation documents” report passed by Cabinet on 12th November 2008 to the waste hierarchy which sets out an order of preference for waste management, namely reduction, re-use, recycling and composting, energy reclamation and finally landfill;
b. Regrets that, due the capital investment in a giant new incinerator and the long term PFI contract with Veolia (then Onyx) signed by the Liberal Democrats in 2001, any additional kerbside recycling will have to be funded by savings in other council services or by increasing Council Tax;
c. Regrets that, despite the claim to be committed to carbon reduction and best environmental practice, the report contains no proposals for reduction, re-use, repair and composting;
d. Regrets that there has been no modelling of the option of street level recycling banks;
e. Regrets that, while trying to be open about the financial implications of
increased recycling, estimated costs have only been provided for a small number of pre-selected options;
f. Regrets that there appears to have been no independent critique of the information provided by Veolia (the WRATE analysis) which has informed the choice of options presented;
g. Regrets that there is no reference to the Regional Waste Strategy or how Sheffield could contribute to or benefit from it;
h. Regrets that there is no indication in the report of how the feedstock for the Bernard Road facility will be maintained if recycling rates for domestic waste double by 2020;
i. Regrets that whilst there is a commitment to work with commercial businesses to “reduce waste to landfill” the phrase “by reducing the carbon impact of waste” could mean that it will be incinerated instead;
j. Welcomes the acknowledgement in the report of the contribution made by the
not-for-profit company, Reclaim, but regrets that there is no specific
commitment to working with or expanding the role of the Voluntary, Community and Faith sectors;
k. Therefore resolves to return to the drawing board and take advice from groups other than those with a vested commercial interest in order to come up with more imaginative, community oriented, far-sighted and economically advantageous options before going out to consultation.