Waste strategy will set direction of service to 2025 and beyond

08 September 2022

Setting out a blueprint for how domestic waste is collected and disposed of in the North Northamptonshire Council area is the subject of a report before the authority’s Executive next week.

The Waste Management three-year plan sets out how the authority will put proposals in place from now until 2025 and beyond.

Following local government reorganisation and the formation of the authority in April 2021, the waste service was created from teams from the legacy borough, district and county councils. As such, NNC inherited a range of different contracts, service delivery plans, policies and ways of working. 

Since becoming a Unitary, there has been some harmonisation of services and teams, but, further work is still required to create one single tier waste service.

The proposal is to create a plan to bring together all parts of the service as contracts expire and activities align to create a single waste management service.

A more co-ordinated and aligned approach is expected to bring service efficiencies, harmonization, financial benefits and service improvements for residents.

An efficient and co-ordinated waste service is essential if we are going to operate in the best conditions possible and provide the best value for money for residents, so it makes sense to have a strategy with which to work towards this goal.

Not only do we want to maximise our resources, but, also ensure the most up-to-date treatment methods are at our disposal to ensure that we meet our carbon neutrality targets by ensuring as much as possible is re-used, re-cycled or treated to create useable by-products.Cllr Graham Lawman the council’s Executive member for Highways, Travel and Assets

As a growing area it’s important that we get the provision of such a key service right – to not only harmonise our offer across North Northants but to also make it efficient.Cllr Jason Smithers, Leader of the Council

The waste service provides kerbside waste collections for both recyclable and nonrecyclable waste to approximately 148,900 households.

Each year, North Northamptonshire produces 157,960 of household waste, 45.4% of which is sent for recycling or composting with the remainder being sent for treatments that maximise the potential for energy recovery.

In addition to household waste collection and disposal, NNC waste teams have responsibility for:

• Street-cleansing including maintenance of the litter bin network
• Environmental crime enforcement including fly tipping and littering offences
• Active management of one closed landfill site and monitoring of a further four closed landfill sites.