Waste strategy: our current service and performance

Geography and demographics

The local government administrative area of New Forest District Council (290 square miles) includes the New Forest National Park (206 square miles).

The district is one of the most populated non-unitary authorities in England, with a population of 179,139 in 2020 according to the Hampshire County Council Small Area Population Forecasts (SAPF).

Within its boundaries there are 37 active town and parish councils. Hampshire County Council are responsible for upper tier services, such as schools, highways and waste disposal.

Approximately 70% of the population of the district live outside of the New Forest National Park in a number of medium sized towns.

Housing development is made more difficult by many of the environmental constraints of the area. However, over the next 5 years, the housing trajectory data suggests there will be an additional 1,591 properties built in the district.

The district contains just under 8,000 businesses, with 89% micro in size and employing fewer than 10 people.

Current waste services

We are a waste collection authority, and have various responsibilities set out in law. For example, under Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act (1990), we must arrange for the collection of household waste, and can require residents to place the waste for collection in receptacles of a kind and number specified.

The act provides us with flexibility to design collection schemes which are best suited for our community and their needs.

Kerbside collections

We provide a weekly collection of general waste in black sacks, and dry mixed recycling (DMR) collected in clear sacks on the same day.

The clear sack service is used for paper, cardboard, tins, cans, aerosols and plastic bottles.

Glass is collected separately every 4 weeks in a black box.

All other non-recyclable waste is added to the black sack.

There is currently no limit on the quantity of sacks that residents can put out for collection. We deliver around 10 million single-use plastic sacks to residents every year.

All sacks have to be manually picked from the floor by council staff on collection day. These sacks can split, and can be subject to bird or livestock attacks.

Garden waste is also collected from the kerbside on a fortnightly basis in a reusable sack. This is a subscription-only service with a customer base of around 20,000 households.

The collection teams operate from three depots based in Lymington, Totton and Ringwood.

Alongside the main vehicles, we also operate smaller vehicles that can access narrow roads in rural areas across the district.

Business waste collections

Business waste collections are a chargeable service.

We offer a 'pay as you throw' service for small businesses which allows them to purchase general waste and recycling sacks by the roll.

Businesses can also pay for a collection of dry mixed recycling and glass from a wheeled bin.

Business waste collections are made by the household waste and recycling vehicles. This increases the efficiency of the service, helps reduce vehicle emissions and ensures a competitive rate for local businesses.

Business waste is not considered further as part of this strategy.

Bulky waste collection service

The bulky waste service collects a range of large items such as white goods and furniture. This is a chargeable service, however, residents in receipt of certain benefits can apply for one free collection of up to 3 items, in any one financial year (April to March).

All bulky waste is disposed of in landfill which is not only costly but is also the most inefficient form of disposal from a carbon producing perspective.

It is therefore vital that we help residents find reuse opportunities for suitable unwanted bulky items, with the aim of reducing tonnage collected from the bulky waste service.

Recycling bring sites

We provide dry mixed recycling and glass banks at 18 frequently used locations around the district.

The bring sites accept the same materials that we collect in the recycling sacks and glass collection boxes.

There are also additional banks for textiles and shoes at some of these sites.

We are currently in contract with the Salvation Army Trading company (SATCoL) under a county-wide textile framework agreement, managed by Fareham Borough Council.

A carton bank was implemented as a trial at Fordingbridge car park in July 2019. The bank has been well used and well received by residents, and tonnages have steadily increased over the trial period.

These bring sites do suffer from abuse, namely illegal fly-tipping and dumping, illegal business use, and contaminated bins which can spoil any legitimately added recyclable material meaning it is wasted.

The environmental cost of dealing with waste

The process of collecting and disposing waste and recycling has an environmental impact. We must provide containers for residents to use for their waste and recycling.

We need to use large vehicles to collect and transport it, and it has to be processed or disposed of.

All these elements create CO2 emissions. However, we also save CO2 when we separate material out for recycling rather than sending it to landfill or incineration.

The way we collect waste and recycling, for example, the type of containers used, the frequency of collections, the vehicles we use and the way we separate materials, all have an impact on the level of recycling and the overall CO2 emissions of our service.

As part of our research, an environmental impact assessment was carried out on our current and future service.

The results of this are shown in section 7.1 (link)

How much waste is produced in the New Forest

In the New Forest, we collected 63,000 tonnes of household waste during 2020 to 2021. This includes waste collected from the kerbside as well as waste collected from litter picking and street sweeping. 

We perform similarly to the Hampshire average, and better than the average for England. Our performance ranked 44th out of 216 English waste collection authorities in 2020 to 2021.

If you break down the numbers into kilograms per person we have 351.4 kg, Hampshire has 351 kg. The average across England was 384 kg. The lowest rate was Camden Council, with 186 kg.

How much we recycle in the New Forest

The proportion of overall household waste sent for recycling or composting is known as the "recycling rate".

The UK recycling target for 2025 is 55%.

In comparison we had a 34% recycling rate in 2020 to 2021, compared to Hampshire with 35%. The average across England was 43%. The highest rate was St Albans City and District Council, with 64%.

The recycling rate for us and across Hampshire is significantly below the average for England, and almost half that of England's best performer, St Albans City and District Council.

We are ranked 174th out of 216 English waste collection authorities in 2020 to 2021. There have been no significant increases in recycling levels for us, Hampshire or England in the last 5 years.

As the waste disposal authority, Hampshire County Council have responsibility for disposal of the waste we collect in the New Forest.

The destination of household waste collected across Hampshire, including Southampton and Portsmouth is:

• 61% is incinerated
• 35% is recycled and composted
• 4% goes to landfill

The largest proportion of our waste is incinerated to generate electricity. 

What is in our waste

In 2018, a comprehensive analysis of New Forest's kerbside waste and recycling was carried out.

The composition, by weight, of black bag waste is:

• 40% food waste
• 12% paper and card
• 8% dense plastic
• 7% other putrescible (organic/ degradable) waste
• 6% plastic film
• 6% nappies
• 6% combustible
• 4% textiles
• 3% glass
• 3% hazardous waste
• 1% electronic equipment

Nearly half (47.0%) of black bag waste was made up of putrescible (organic/ degradable) waste. Of this putrescible waste, almost 40% was food waste.

The next largest category is paper and card.

Overall, 19% of general waste could have been recycled at the kerbside or bring sites, rather than being placed into black sacks.

The composition, by weight, of clear sack waste (such as dry mixed recycling) is:

• 71% paper and card
• 12% dense plastic
• 7% metal
• 4% putrescible (organic/ degradable) waste
• 2% combustible
• 2% plastic film
• 1% glass
• 1% other materials

Paper and card made up the largest proportion, 71%. Overall, 16.7% of material found in clear sacks is classed as contamination that cannot currently be recycled by that collection method.

This material has to be separated at the sorting facility and then disposed of.

The financial cost of dealing with waste

In 2020 to 2021, the net cost of providing waste collection services was around £53 per household per year.

Cost comparisons with other areas are difficult because of differences in how costs are calculated from one council to another.

An exercise conducted in 2016 to 2017 in partnership with other Hampshire councils, estimated that the cost of waste collection for us was 25% more than the average cost across Hampshire.

This is primarily due to the weekly sack collection service (compared to the fortnightly wheeled bin service in operation in most other areas).