Community Liaison Group Minutes

Notes from the meeting of the Community Liaison Group on Tuesday, 21 May 2024, at 6pm at the Manvers site.

Attendance

Non-members

Appologies 

Written updates from Renewi, BDR, and the CELO had been circulated previously. Brief summaries and further updates were given verbally at the meeting and CLG members had the opportunity to ask questions.

Welcome and introductions

The acting chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. The former Renewi BDR Operations Manager was introduced as the new Renewi BDR Contract Director. He replaces the BDR Contract Director who has been promoted to the position of Renewi’s UK Operations Director.

Notes from the last meeting on 14 November 2023

These were agreed as a true record.

Issues arrising

There were no issues arising.

Renewi BDR Ltd update

The Renewi BDR Contract Director summarised and updated the written report. There had been an increase in contracted volumes in the year 23/34. The forecast for the year of 207500 tonnes had been exceeded by approximately 1900 tonnes to generate a full year tonnage of circa 209500. In the last quarter the contract had received 53,554 tonnes of contract material with an additional 2,124 tonnes of third-party waste.

Recycling performance had improved in the final quarter of 23/24 from a YTD average up until December of 13.52% to 15.86% in Q4. The improvement had resulted from changes to the materials recovery facility to improve organic fines recovery which in turn had increased biogas production and the generation of green energy. The improvement in fines tonnage had offset the lower glass and stone recovery which had been reduced to improve the quality of this stream. Moisture loss had been strong in the year at 30.54%, the highest figure for five years.

Renewi had entered into an adjudication to recover costs for repair work to the pasteurisation tunnels in 2023. The outcome had found in favour of Renewi and some of the costs had been recovered from the contractor. This was now subject to an appeal from said contractor.

In April 2024 Barnsley transfer station had suffered a major fire. At its peak, seven appliances from the Fire Service had tackled the blaze in the mattress storage section of the facility. Fortunately, early detection by the thermal camera system and swift response from the fire service allowed the fire to be tackled relatively quickly which prevented more serious damage to the building. No one had been hurt in the incident, but the fire caused disruption to the movement of waste at the site. A contingency had been implemented to divert most of the waste to the main facility at Bolton Road. The probable cause was a lithium-ion battery in the waste which again highlighted the dangers of incorrect disposal of small electronic items. These items are regarded as a key fire risk in the waste industry.

Ferrybridge FM1 had undertaken a four-week shutdown at the end of March 2024. A subsequent problem with one of the main boilers had caused downtime which in turn had resulted in lengthy waiting times. As reported at the last meeting repair works to the tipping bays had not been fully completed. This had further compounded the waiting time issue.

There had been several personnel changes. The Managing Director had left the business at the end of March. the former Engineering and Performance Director had been promoted to MD. BDR Contracts Director had been promoted to UK Operations Director to support MD on all Renewi’s UK contracts. The BDR Contract Director has been replaced.

The BDR Contract Director informed CLG that Renewi was in the process of reviewing its UK business operations. The Manvers site was controlled by a PFI Contract and that any change in ownership would not impact operations at the site.

UK Operations Director

The Council's (BDR) Waste Team

The BDR Manager summarised and updated his written report. The BDR councils had continued to successfully deliver waste services and collect all waste streams as scheduled. The councils continued to see the amounts of household waste tonnages collected at Kerbside and HWRC back at pre-Covid levels.

All councils continued to seek improvements and efficiencies in their current collection service. These included:

• Continued review of Kerbside Collected routes and rounds, aiming to achieve optimisation to include the increased number of households/new build seen in each borough, whilst ensuring the most cost-efficient routes that crews can take to achieve saving on fuel and time and reducing the carbon footprint.
• Aiming to enhance the collections by offering more recycled material collection at the kerbside (in line with potential requirements from new Waste Legislation anticipated to be introduced) and looking to introduce collection of recycling materials for businesses.
• Seeking to tackle and prevent contamination of recycling through engagement and education of residents.

From the 1st April the Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) had reverted to their summer timetables with extended opening hours. (This was different for each council and would see earlier opening hours and later closing times due to increased daylight).

As previously advised the UK Government had announced many new waste initiatives and changes to its environment policies. They were introducing Extended Producer Responsibility (October 2025), and a Deposit Return Scheme (October 2027), but had also announced a new “Simpler Recycling Policy”. The government had still not confirmed all aspects of the Simpler Recycling Policy. Not all the information and direction had yet been announced by them, and councils were seeking/awaiting further clarity and confirmation. The BDR councils initially felt they were in a strong position to fulfil the aims, requirements, and specifications of the new government directive. They were still in the process of confirming and analysing the finer details. CLG would be advised of the outcomes for Simpler Recycling as more information emerged.

The BDR Manager informed CLG that the BDR Waste Partnership had been formally named in the new waste legislation as being exempt from collecting food waste separately until 2040. This was because food waste currently collected by the partnership was already being processed for composting.

The BDR Manager stated the Hubbub leaflets mentioned to the CLG at the November meeting were now approved and live and available to use.

A member of CLG asked about the disposal of small electrical appliances. Details of a helpful website giving information about local collection points was given www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk

BDR Manager’s

Community Education Liason Officer

The CELO summarised and updated their written report. Since the last CLG meeting work had continued in the following areas, in line with the CELO Plan:

Social Media Messaging.  Social media messaging could be found on: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Posts on social media covered topics such as: Love Food Hate Waste, Local re-use projects, Composting, That doesn’t belong in my bin, Recipes, Recycling contamination, Saving money – saving energy – wasting less.

Website Promotions. The BDR Online website had undergone a homepage update, making the site more appealing and accessible. Updates had been made to the site visits and education visits to enhance engagement opportunities.

National Campaigns. WRAP’s Food Waste Action Week (February 2024)

CELO Team Developments. In January 2024 the Assistant CELO returned from maternity leave.

Renewi Corporate Social Responsibility Fund. This year Renewi had awarded three Community Fridges a grant of £2,000 towards their food waste and community engagement enterprises. These were The Cambeth Community Project Community Fridge, Doncaster; The Learning Community in Dinnington, Rotherham; The Community Fridge, in Mapplewell & Staincross, Barnsley.

CELO Plan 2024-25 The CELO Plan, had been created in collaboration with the BDR Waste Partnership Council’s waste management and communications teams, agreed media contacts, and the contract leadership. It detailed the communications and engagement strategies to be used to promote and inspire everyone to engage in making a difference in their world. The plan focused on six priority areas: Reducing kerbside contamination, Re-use and repair, Waste prevention, Disposal of small domestic appliances (SDA’s), Education, Roadshows & Engagement and CELO Communications.

The CELO said now that the weather had improved the team could look to work with the CLG to discuss the provision of voluntary hours for any community projects.

Acting CELO.

Future of CLG discussion

At the last CLG meeting it had been agreed to look at the Terms and Conditions and Standing Orders of the Community Liaison Group as part of a wider discussion on the future direction of the group and to review its remit.

The decision followed a fall in Group membership in recent years and difficulty in attracting new members.  The BDR Manager said one of the original reasons for forming the CLG was to give local communities the opportunity to raise concerns and queries about the Manvers project.  A CLG member suggested the fall in membership in recent years could be that people were comfortable with the management of the Manvers site and did not feel the need to complain. The number of complaints about the site had reduced significantly since it first opened.

The BDR Waste Partnership said it valued the community prospective brought by CLG members and was keen to support the group to use that knowledge and experience in new ways.  There was the opportunity for the group to evolve and grow by working with local communities to champion initiatives such as environmental and sustainability projects.  The Partnership would be keen to work with the CLG to help take their ideas forward. CLG members undertook to look at potential projects for consideration and to forward ideas to the Partnership team.

As part of the CLG refresh it was agreed the membership needed to elect a new Chair to drive forward the new role as the group had been without a permanent Chair for some time. The Partnership reassured members it would continue to carry out the role of Acting Chair at the CLG meetings until a new Chair had been confirmed.

Any other business

The Acting Chair informed CLG that the BDR Manager was retiring on the 31 July 2024, and this would be her last CLG. He placed on record thanks from the BDR Team, and other members and contributors to the CLG for her dedication, hard work, and commitment to make the Manvers site and joint BDR contract the success it was.  He said the thanks and appreciation were very much heart felt and that she would be missed.

The BDR Manager said she had started work on the Manvers project back in 2006 when she had been tasked with putting together an output specification for the site and then helping to evaluate the bids. She said the CLG had played an important role over the years ensuring the voice of local communities was heard and their concerns raised with the BDR councils. She said it was reassuring that one of the founding members of the CLG group had recently expressed the view that the group had achieved many of its original objectives.

Date, Time, and venue for the next meeting.

This will be at the Visitor Centre at Manvers on Tuesday 19 November 2024 at 6pm. (To be confirmed)