Resource and Waste Strategy Consultation

Outcomes

The Council supports the declarations made by Welsh Government for the Public Sector to become net zero by 2030. The Council has a clear Climate Change Strategy, which sets key aims and actions for creating a carbon neutral organisation. Reducing the consumption of raw materials and increasing reuse and recycling to save precious resource is a key part of reaching net zero.

The draft Resources and Waste Strategy set out the Council’s direction to reduce waste and exceed Welsh Government statutory recycling targets, which were not currently being achieved. Without action the Authority is at risk of around £1.13M fines for failing to reach these targets in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, as well as a further risk of similar fines in 2023/2024.  

Between 1 December 2023 and 12 January 2024 Members, residents and communities were asked to have their say on the Council’s draft Resource and Waste Strategy.  This was to understand how closely the priorities and expectations of service users were aligned with the Council’s objectives.

The consultation was promoted through a wide range of channels, including:

• Council website
• Press Releases
• Social Media
• Ebulletins to 30,000 subscribers
• Briefings for Members of Parliament, Members of the Senedd and Town and Community Councils
• Briefings and workshops for elected County Councillors

There were several ways people could get involved:

• Online survey on the Council’s website.
• Paper surveys available at Connect Centres, HRCs and on request.
• Eleven face to face drop-in sessions held at HRCs, Connect Centres/libraries and at Wepre Park, Connah’s Quay. 

A total of 5,333 people took part (Document 1 - Question Responses).

In general, there was overwhelming support for the Council’s aims from the majority of people who took part:

• Climate change and becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
• Supporting and providing opportunities to for residents to minimise, reduce, repair and reuse more, along with increasing recycling.
• Communicate and engage with residents to help promote opportunities and increase take up.
• Rationalising and investing in the Council’s waste and recycling infrastructure.
• Utilise effective enforcement for continual non-conformance.

Whilst there was overwhelming support for the majority of measures and actions designed to move people into more sustainable waste minimisation and disposal habits, when asked about a number of methods which had the potential to more directly impact individual households the response was more evenly split.  This related to:

• Reducing the frequency of black bin collections or providing smaller bins.
• Prohibiting the disposal of recyclable waste in black bins.
• Introducing enforcement action against those who do not recycle at all or incorrectly.

However, from the number of people who were undecided, it is evident that there is more work to be done in helping communities understand how these direct measures, along with individual actions, will be critical in achieving the five strongly supported objectives listed below:

• To be a net zero carbon Council by 2030 and support wider decarbonisation actions across the County
• Prioritise waste minimisation through proactive engagement with our communities.
• Achieve Welsh Government targets to reuse, recycle and compost over 70% of the waste we collect.
• To provide efficient, innovative, and cost-effective services.
• Meet budgetary requirements and avoid fines.
• Utilise proportionate and effective enforcement for non-conformance.

The more we all minimise our waste and recycle correctly at home, at work or when we are out and about, the greater the benefits will be for everyone.  Retaining these more direct methods in the Resource and Waste Strategy will encourage people with continually poor recycling habits to switch to more sustainable recycling behaviours.

People were also able to tell us more about why they responded in the way they did and offer additional comments to the set questions asked.  This information was reviewed and categorised as follows (Document 2 - Consultation Comments and Consideration):

• Green:  already included in the draft strategy.
• Amber: not included in the draft strategy and after full consideration was included in the final strategy.
• Red: suggestions which conflicted and would have a negative detrimental impact on communities, climate action, the Council’s aims and objectives and Welsh Government targets. These were not included in the final strategy.

A comprehensive set of FAQs have been published providing more detail on the comments/suggestions received and why it was/or was not possible to include them in the final strategy document. 

Following full consideration of all the responses received, the final strategy was prepared and presented to the Council’s Cabinet for approval on 12 March 2024, and the Resource and Waste Strategy is now being implemented.