The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership (LWP) met to discuss waste management and recycling initiatives across the county. Councillor Stephen Bunney, Chairman of the Council, was elected as Chairman for the year 2025/26, and Councillor Richard Wright, Greater Lincolnshire Leaders and CX's, was elected as Vice Chairman. The partnership received updates on partner activities, performance measures, regulatory changes, and the food waste project, and discussed future meeting agendas.

Food Waste Collection

The LWP is continuing to implement segregated food waste collections and disposal in accordance with the simpler recycling initiative and statutory legislation.

The council has entered into a construction contract to modify its five existing waste transfer stations. Planning applications for the works have been approved for the Grantham and Boston waste transfer stations, and applications have been submitted for Sleaford waste transfer station. Applications are being prepared for Louth and Gainsborough.

Discussions are ongoing with multiple landowners in the 'Greater' Lincoln area for the construction of a new waste transfer station. In the interim, a temporary waste transfer station has been secured for use by the City of Lincoln and northern areas of North Kesteven, located in South Hykeham.

Disposal capacity was secured in 2024 with BioteCH4, with facilities at Hemswell Cliff and March to serve Lincolnshire.

Senior officers are collaborating on a joint procurement exercise for the purchase of liners for an initial supply of 52 liners made from recycled plastic to each household.

Due to vehicle manufacture and production delivery times, the go-live dates will be split, with West Lindsey District Council (WLDC), City of Lincoln Council (CoLC), North Kesteven District Council (NKDC) and South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) proceeding in March and April 2026, and with East Lindsey District Council (ELDC), Boston Borough Council (BBC) and South Holland District Council (SHDC) proceeding in Autumn 2026.

The LWP agreed to send a letter to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to inform them of the current programme delivery.

Several councillors raised concerns about the food waste communications plan. Councillor District Martin Foster, East Lindsey District Council, said the communications should emphasise that the initiative is mandated by the government, and that local councils are helping residents to achieve this. He also noted that people were unaware of the size of the caddies being introduced.

One councillor noted three broad themes that had come through on Facebook:

• a misconception that people get to choose which bin they get
• an accusation of hypocrisy because of the liners in the bins
• concerns about the return of the 'bin police'.

Councillor Foster also raised concerns that people were connecting the new service with the green waste collection charge. He said that communications should make it clear that the food waste collection will be free of charge.

Regulatory and Legislative Updates

Kay Boasman, Head of Waste Management and Market Services, SKDC, provided an update on regulatory and legislative changes.

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): The EPR for Packaging regulations aim to make producers responsible for the costs of managing their packaging waste. Authorities in the bottom 10% of their groups can lose up to 20% of EPR funding.
• Simpler Recycling: The new Simpler Recycling changes mandate that most households and workplaces will need to have four separate containers for residual (non-recyclable) waste, food waste, paper and card, and all other dry recyclable materials. The key focus for the LWP is the introduction of weekly residual food waste collections, which need to be in place by 31 March 2026.
• Deposit Return Scheme (DRS): The introduction of a DRS covering polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and aluminium/steel cans has been delayed until October 2027. The scheme will be managed by an independent, industry-led Deposit Management Organisation, which will set the refundable deposit amount and oversee the program's implementation. Glass will not be included in the DRS for England and Northern Ireland.

• Single Use Vapes Ban: From 1 June 2025, it became illegal for businesses to sell or supply all single use vapes[^1].

  [^1]: Single use vapes are considered to be particularly damaging to the environment because they contain plastic, lithium batteries and other materials that are difficult to recycle.

• Simpler Recycling Non-Compliance Charge Consultation: The Environment Agency has launched a consultation on introducing a £118 hourly charge to enable them to recover the costs of regulatory activities following the launch of Simpler Recycling on Monday 31 March 2025.

Councillor Wright said that the legislative changes were an absolute tosh and that the deposit return scheme was a farce. He said that the scheme was full of holes and that it would lead to lorries going around every shop to collect the containers. He also criticised the fact that glass had been missed out of the scheme.

Performance Measure Update

Rachel Stamp, Waste Partnership and Projects Manager – LCC, provided an update on performance measures.

The recycling rate for the last financial year was 39.6%, against a 50% target. The variance was primarily affected by green waste. The introduction of food waste should add at least 7% to the recycling rate.

The quality of material being recycled has improved. Prior to any twin stream implementations, 28.1% of all quality materials were being lost. That is now under 9%.

The amount of waste going to landfill was 0.5%, against a 5% target.

From April 2025, the county council is undertaking its own quality samples.

One councillor asked what plans were in place to push the recycling rate above 50%. Rachel Stamp said that the council was working hard on waste minimisation, and to encourage reuse and recycling. She also said that the council was looking at all of its occupations to ensure that it has the biggest pool to fish in, and that its contractors will push waste as high up on that waste hierarchy as possible.

Lincolnshire Waste Partnership Forward Plan

The partnership discussed potential topics for future meetings.

Councillor District Rhys Baker, South Kesteven District Council, suggested modelling what a single waste authority would look like. He said that everyone is looking to make savings, but nobody ever looks at waste.

Councillor Baker also said that access to household waste recycling centres was putting significantly more pressure on some sites. He suggested looking at traffic movement usage of these sites.

One councillor said that residents in Boston Borough Council who do not have access to a vehicle cannot access the household waste recycling centre. He asked if there was a way to provide a potential walk-on. It was agreed that the walk-on issue should be looked into.

It was agreed that the terms of reference should be reviewed and put on the October agenda. It was also agreed that the performance update would be removed from the July meeting.