Agenda item

The Council's Waste Services Manager attended the meeting and provided Members with further information on the review.

Members were informed that contact had been made with other neighbouring authorities to look at their policy regarding disposal of charity waste.

London Borough of Ealing had no formal policy regarding the acceptance of charity waste at Civic Amenity sites in their Borough. Members were informed that their general rule was that charities delivering waste for recycling were not charged.

A charge was made at normal commercial rates for all other charity waste.  The only exceptions would be where a charity had carried out specific works in support of local community activity and disposal had been arranged in advance. This was an informal arrangement, on a case by case basis.

Alan Whiting from the London Borough of Harrow also attended the meeting and reported that the Waste Teams at Harrow did charge some charities for waste disposal. Charity waste was collected on a weekly basis via the regular collection service.

Members were provided with a sample of what other local authorities' policies were in relation to acceptance of waste from charities.

North London Waste Authority (NWLA) 

Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA)

 East London Waste Authority

In relation to Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge there were generally no policies in place or charging regime as there were no concerns regarding the disposal of charity waste.

Sample of Unitary authorities

The Committee noted that from the examples given, there was not a consistent approach to the disposal of charity waste, although Hillingdon seemed to be unique, in terms of the volume of charity waste disposed of at New Years Green Lane, and that some of this waste was not from within the Borough.

Information from Charities

The Committee received information from Michael Sobell House, which was a charity which operated in the Borough. There were three charity shops and a warehouse, all based in the Borough. Details of their waste strategy were reported. The organisation provided a van collection service (primarily in the Borough of Hillingdon) to local residents and collected donated goods from private houses, businesses, pubs, clubs etc. and people's places of work.

All donated clothing, shoes, handbags, small working electrical products and similar household items were either sold in the charities shops or ethically recycled by a certified third party.

Metal articles which could not be sold were taken to an approved scrap metal merchant. Books were sold in shops or markets with any unsaleable books recycled for pulp. All of these routes provided much needed income for the charity.

Ebay was used for selling items, which included furniture. House clearances did not take place, with the organisation only selecting those items from houses, which they could sell.

The strategy was to recycle as far as possible, as this brought in revenue for the charity. Only Items which proved to be damaged, broken or otherwise unsaleable were taken to New Years Green Lane Civic Amenity Site.

The Committee was informed that the charity supported a hospice, which provided an invaluable service to the Borough’s local community.

The British Heart Foundation's Waste & Recycling Manger provided a written submission which reported that the organisation had merchants that collected unsaleable items primarily for re-use as followed:

·         Textiles sorted and exported, with a proportion recycled for wipers, felt, flocking etc in the UK

·         Bric-a-brac sorted and exported, recycling of glass, ceramics, plastics, metal

·         Books sold online, recycled at a UK paper mill

In addition, cardboard was regularly recycled. There was a fraction which the organisation could not re-use or recycle, which included plastic bags that the donations came in, but these were disposed of, along with the shop’s own waste through a commercial collection service. The only items which the organisation had difficulty with, were unsaleable furniture and electrical goods. 

The British Heart Foundation did not have any stores within the Borough so selling these items was not an issue for the Council. However, elsewhere they would always seek to return these to the municipal waste stream via household waste recycling centres or to transfer station.

The Waste Services Manager informed Members that staff at New Years Green Lane Civic Amenity site would monitor the nature and amount of charity waste which was being disposed of to enable an assessment to be made of the levels being received and from where it originated, if possible.

For the next meeting it was agreed that representatives from charities again be contacted to enable evidence to be given to Members as part of the review.

RESOLVED –

1. That the information provided be noted and be taken into consideration as part of the review.