Freedom of information response

1. What was the budget for Waste Management in 2023 and what is the budget in 2024?

2023/24 Budget: £6,915,762

2024/25 Budget: £5,518,532

2. What was the expenditure in 2022 or 2023 for Fly Tipping collection services and what is expected to be in 2024?

3. Who voted these changes in waste collection? How was the decision made.

Decisions on waste collection services are ultimately made by Cabinet but a number of committees consider such matters, including the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The link will take you to the Council’s Committee reports archive where you are able to search for all reports and decisions relating to waste collection: https://democracy.thurrock.gov.uk/mgListCommittees.aspx?bcr=1

4. How do you plan to reduce fly tipping ?

We have increased our front line resources and taken a robust zero tolerance approach to all environment offences

5. Where are the money diverted from savings made to 2023?

6. Why we cannot increase the frequency of waste collection to pre April 24 to prevent fly tipping and mitigate the spread of pests. This isn’t a negotiable idea. It’s a matter of public health.

It is the Council’s strategy to work together with all its residents to reduce the amount of waste we produce. The grey/green 180 litre bin provided for non-recycling waste, and the frequency of collection, is based on;

• up to 4 residents living in a property
• residents of the property using all the waste services provided to them as instructed to maximise recycling opportunities (please see ‘What goes in your bins’ www.thurrock.gov.uk/bins).

The same policy is adopted by other Council’s up and down the country as there is a national focus on reducing the amount of non-recyclable waste produced per property.

Within Thurrock, the average household in 22/23 produced approx. 56Kg of refuse per month which equates to 26kg per fortnight. Using the conversion factor of 0.27 kg/L for weight to volume of household waste (from www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk) this equates to 104L per fortnight.

The grey/green wheeled bin provided has a capacity of 180L and will be sufficient for most households with up to 4 permanent residents and provides some spare capacity. A full list of what can be recycled in the Blue bin can be viewed at www.thurrock.gov.uk/a-z-waste-recyclable

In issuing our response the Council has applied S21 of the Freedom of Information Act.

This means that the information you have requested is already available elsewhere so is therefore exempt from disclosure.