Purpose

To consider options for the Trade Waste Service.

Decision

The Cabinet:

1. 1 Approved the progression of a formal sale process for the council’s trade waste service, including the transfer of the customer base, associated contracts and operational assets.
2. 2 Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for Operational Services, in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and Director of Resident & Business Services, to approve and complete a sale, provided the financial outcome does not create a pressure on the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) beyond the key decision threshold.
3. 3 Agreed that any proposed sale which would result in an MTFS pressure exceeding the key decision limit will be brought back to Cabinet for a further decision.

Reasons for the decision

The council operates a long-standing discretionary trade waste service for approximately 470 local businesses. The service provides refuse and dry recycling collections but does not currently offer food waste collections.

National Simpler Recycling reforms require all businesses to have separate food waste collection arrangements by 31 March 2027. The council is not funded or equipped to provide a commercial food waste service, creating a structural gap in the current offer.

Customer behaviour is already changing, with early signs of decline. This is expected to accelerate as regulatory requirements take effect, and businesses move to providers offering integrated waste services, specifically after 31 March 2027 when all businesses regardless of size must recycle their food waste.

Maintaining the current model will result in ongoing customer attrition, falling income and a gradual loss of value, impacting the council’s financial position. Conversely, a managed sale of the service would:

• Secure value while the customer base remains viable.

• Support businesses to access compliant, full-service waste provision.

• Avoid significant capital investment and operational risk.

• Enable the council to exit a declining and increasingly specialist market.

• There would be no redundancies, with existing staff redeployed within the wider waste service.

This paper proposes and seeks approval to progress with a managed sale of the service.

Alternative options considered

·       Do nothing: Continued customer decline, falling income and loss of value

·       Invest in a commercial food waste service: Requires significant capital investment, operational expansion and entry into a competitive market with no guaranteed return

·       Partial retention: Unlikely to be viable as businesses consolidate services with single providers and costs of delivering a reduced service exceed income.