Leicestershire County Council (LCC) has become the latest local authority to consider reducing some of its waste offerings to save money.

Last week, the authority announced that it was facing its ‘biggest ever financial challenge’ as ongoing budget cuts mean it will need to save £120 million by 2018/19. It outlined that, although services for the vulnerable will be protected ‘as far as possible’, all services will be ‘transformed’ by the budget cuts, with the budget for waste management (currently £27.4 million a year) needing to be cut by £4.9 million by 2018/19.

To do this, the council is suggesting that it change the way household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) are run, and amend the recycling credit system.

HWRC changes

LCC states that around £1.1 million will need to be cut from the HWRC budget of £6.28 million over the next few years. It states that £300,000 of savings can be made through ‘operational efficiencies’ and ‘spending less on improvements to sites’ but that £800,000 will need to be achieved by changing the way HWRCs currently operate.

Specifically, the council is suggesting that a combination of the following proposals be implemented:

• introducing a scheme to charge non-Leicestershire residents for using any of the council’s 14 HWRCs or banning non-residents from using site altogether (saving between £150,000 - £250,000);
• introducing a scheme to charge charities and parish councils (as well as any other groups that currently use HWRCs for free) for disposing of waste at HWRCs (saving around £90,000 each year);
• introducing a scheme to charge residents for disposing of non-household waste (such as construction waste) at HWRCs or banning the practice altogether (saving £380,000 a year); and
• restricting HWRC opening times to one the following:

1. five-day opening all year at seven of the sites with the remaining seven sites open daily in the summer and five days per week in the winter (saving approximately £90,000 per year);
2. five-day opening all year at all of the sites, with HWRCs closing either on Tuesday and Wednesdays or Thursday and Fridays (saving approximately £175,000 per year); or
3. keeping the current seven-day opening hours for the eight main sites and limiting the opening days of the six secondary HWRCs to weekends and Mondays (saving approximately £200,000 per year).

Recycling credits

Recycling credits were introduced by central government more than 20 years ago to encourage waste collection authorities (the district and borough councils) and organisations such as charities and community groups to recycle household waste.

LCC currently pays a recycling credit (£49.97 in 2014/15) for each tonne of household waste that is diverted for recycling or reuse. However, it is currently looking to reduce the recycling credits it pays to district and borough councils by £1.6 million.

The council also pays around £120,000 worth of recycling credits to approximately 40 charities and community groups. It is now proposing that it either:

• stop paying all recycling credits to all charities and community groups (saving approximately £120,000 a year); or
• only pay recycling credits to groups that collect materials that are not collected for recycling by kerbside collections or at HWRCs (such as mattresses or carpets).

A combination of proposals will need to be implemented

The council has highlighted that none of the proposals will deliver the required savings individually, so it is likely that a combination of the proposals will need to be implemented.

As such, it is calling on residents and organisations to have their say on which proposals would work best, and identify how the proposals will affect them.

The consultation runs until 26 April 2015.

DCLG looking to restrict ‘backdoor bin charges’

LCC is the latest council to consider restricting access to its HWRCs, following on from Dorset Waste Partnership’s (DWP) proposals to charge residents for using its HWRCs.

However, the way councils charge for HWRCs has come under fire from central government recently, with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) arguing last month that, as there is a legislative requirement for LAs to provide residents with free-to-use HWRCs for disposing of household waste/recycling (for example, in the Environmental Protection Act 1990), these ‘backdoor’ charges circumvent ‘the will of Parliament and the Government who have a clearly expressed policy of free-to-use centres for residents’.

As such, it is considering implementing two new pieces of legislation, put forward in a discussion document, to prevent councils from introducing charges to residents to dispose of household waste and/or recycling (charges for non-residents and non-household waste/recycling may still apply).

Find out more about LCC’s waste management consultation or DCLG’s proposed laws to ban HWRC charges.