Waste strategy overview
All our residents are key partners in helping to successfully reduce waste and to reuse and recycle more. Every household, business and community plays a vital role in how we manage waste. The choices we all make shape our environment and impact local finances.
Increasing costs of waste management and new government legislation are driving changes to how waste services are delivered to residents.
That’s why we’ve developed our first-ever waste strategy. It’s a 25-year plan, to be reviewed every five years, which sets out how we’ll manage waste and recycling more sustainably from 2026 to 2051 in line with national legislation and environmental targets.
The draft waste strategy (PDF) focuses on applying the waste hierarchy and circular economy, and seeks to support local groups and individuals to engage with residents and encourage behaviour change to facilitate reduction in residual waste production and increased reuse and recycling.
The waste hierarchy
The waste hierarchy gives priority to:
- avoiding (preventing) waste
- reducing waste
- reusing waste
- recycling waste
- treating waste
- disposing of waste
This approach aligns our waste services with our strategic and sustainability plans, as well as the government’s ambitions.
The circular economy
The circular economy aims to keep resources in use for as long as possible by recycling, reusing and repurposing items. This prevents waste production at its source, resulting in us being responsible for less waste.
Our strategy
The draft waste strategy (PDF) considers all the waste collected, managed, treated and disposed of by us when performing our waste collection and disposal function. It includes waste from all activities, i.e. kerbside collections, Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), street sweepings and litter, glass bottle banks, as well as waste or recycling collected from other properties (such as schools) and waste from fly-tipping incidents.
The strategy affects every household. It provides information about:
- services we must deliver and how we’ll do this
- kerbside collections; specifically glass, metal, plastic, plastic film, paper and card, food and garden waste from all households *
- Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) services and ensuring they are fit for the future
- being ready for national changes to waste legislation and regulation
* Objectives or measures driven by government policies and legislation. Local authorities only have a duty to collect garden waste if the household has requested the service and paid any related charges.