FOI Request - Costs of Incorrectly Discarded Waste
Request 101002388542
To whom it may concern, please accept the following as a Freedom of Information request.
1) How much has it cost the council in landfill tax and processing fees to deal with incorrectly discarded waste (i.e. materials that can’t be recycled being placed in recycling bins) in EACH of the last three financial years (up to and including the financial year ending April 2019)?
Please break the figures down to show the cost implications involved for different types of recycling the council offers (i.e paper, glass, plastic etc.) each year.
2) Please give details of any action the council has taken in EACH of the last three financial years (up to and including the financial year ending April 2019) against households for placing incorrect material in recycling bins, i.e. bins not emptied by council workers, warning notices issued, financial sanctions.
Please break the figures down to show what action was taken in each year.
Please let me know if you need any further clarification.
Response 26-02-2020
1. Moray Council have 3 recycling containers for materials produced within each property. They are Glass, Mixed Cans & Plastic and Mixed Paper & Card.
The mixed cans and plastics are segregated at our Materials Recovery Facility where all non-recyclables are extracted from the loads. The waste is then back loaded to our landfill site Over the 3 year period we have extracted:
FY 16/17 189.44 tonnes of non-recyclables Landfill tax £84:40/tonnes Total cost £15,988:73
FY 17/18 135.94 tonnes of non-recyclables Landfill tax £86:10/tonnes Total cost £11,704:43
FY 18/19 201.39 tonnes of non-recyclables Landfill tax £88:95/tonnes Total cost £17,913:64
Total cost £45,606:80
This is for landfill tax costs only, the waste is generally back loaded from the MRF so we don’t have any transportation costs available to add onto the above figure.
2. In accordance with section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 please be advised that we do not have specific data regarding how many bins were not serviced due to incorrect materials.
Moray Council signed up to the Household Recycling Charter in 2019. This is a Scottish wide Charter which all Councils have the opportunity to sign up to. This charter allows for recycling bins to be left unserviced if they contain significant amounts of contaminated material and also for green bins to be left un serviced if they also contain significant amount of recycling. Up until signing up to this Charter, Moray Council had no recourse to refuse to service residual bins.
Moray Council have always instructed waste operatives to leave unserviced any recycling bins which contained other or non recyclable materials. These bins are then tagged with information to advise the householder. Operatives are also required to inform Team Leaders which bins have not been serviced to enable any queries from householders to be dealt with. Up until Oct 2018 Moray Council employed Monitoring Assistants who would visit householders to discuss contamination within recycling bins however since these posts no longer exist Team Leaders would not carry out these visits unless there was a significant ongoing issue.
Moray Council do not have the authority to impose sanctions of any kind on householders not disposing of their waste.
[Note: The response to question 1 was amended on 09-03-2020]