The Tamworth and Lichfield Joint Waste Committee met to discuss a review and forward look at waste services, the joint waste service risk log, and the work programme. Councillors were scheduled to discuss the roll out of food waste collections, and potential issues with vapes and batteries being disposed of in waste bins. The committee was also expected to review the minutes of the previous meeting.

Joint Waste Committee Review and Forward Look

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report on the Joint Waste Committee Review and Forward Look.

The report included updates on:

• Route optimisation and round changes
• Food waste fleet and depot rearrangement
• Food waste staffing
• Caddies procurement, storage and delivery
• Food waste promotions, Recycle for Good¹ and The Wombles²
• Current issues - vapes and batteries and Christmas
• Staffing, finance and governance update
• Performance update
• Simpler Recycling update

Route Optimisation

The report stated that route optimisation was needed to make space for food waste collections, as there was a pinch point on Wednesdays . Waste experts Biffa³ had been consulted to combine their technical expertise with local knowledge to minimise the impact of the changes.

The planned changes would affect 5,831 residents' collection days:

• 3,146 residents would have a day change on the same week.
• 589 residents would have a week change.
• 2,096 residents would have both a day change and a week change.

4,164 Tamworth residents and 1,667 Lichfield District residents would experience a change. The route optimisation would allow the council to drop one round every fortnight, saving on staffing and fuel. The new rounds were scheduled to begin in late October or early November. Every affected household would receive a letter explaining the changes and providing a new calendar.

Food Waste Collection

The report stated that ten new food waste vehicles were in production with Terberg Matec UK⁴ and due to arrive in February. Work had been undertaken to ensure the new trucks would fit into the existing yard, and the depot had been cleared to create space.

Four loaders had been selected to be trained as drivers for the new food waste service, but another six drivers were still needed. Agency worker recruitment was scheduled to begin in late autumn.

The council had finalised procurement and ordered:

• 7l caddies for internal use.
• Enough liners to supply each household with two rolls of 52.
• 23l bins for outside use.

The caddies are silver-grey and 100% recyclable at end of life, and were sourced from a local Tamworth company. The caddies were scheduled to start arriving in October/November and would be stored locally.

The food waste launch was informally kicked off at the Lichfield Food Festival⁵ with the Dennis Eagle classroom⁶. The Dennis Eagle classroom was scheduled to tour the two districts during the spring half-term.

Vapes and Batteries

The committee was scheduled to discuss the issue of people disposing of vapes and batteries in their waste bins. Vapes and batteries can cause fires in trucks and recycling plants. The committee was to consider additional 'No vapes and batteries' stickers on bins, at a cost of approximately £20,000.

Performance Update

The report stated that long-term sickness was a pressure, and dry recycling was down, impacting recycling performance. The level of accidents was higher than predicted due to the new fleet, and missed collections were slightly up.

Joint Waste Service - Risk Log

The committee was scheduled to review the joint waste service risk log, which identified a number of risks to the service.

These included:

• Tamworth Borough Council and Lichfield District Council not having the same appetite for initiatives.
• Partnership degrading due to poor management/relationships.
• Unknown impact of Local Government Reorganisation⁷.
• Failure to increase the recycling rate.
• Vapes and batteries putting recycling plants and vehicles at risk.
• Poor management and delivery of the food waste roll out.
• Risk that food waste caddies will not be produced in time due to national demand.
• Loss of HGV drivers.
• Current finances not adequately reflecting the full running cost of the service.
• Volatility in fuel prices.
• Fall in income from sale of dry recyclate.
• Impact of short and long-term sickness on service budgets.
• Ongoing levels of accidents on crews.

Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review the work programme for 2025/26, which included standing items such as KPI updates, risk updates, service updates, procurements updates, updates on Recycle for Good and customer feedback, and financial performance.