Update on plans to improve recycling in the district
27 February 2024
We have continued to plan for improved recycling in the district, following the latest government update on national plans for waste disposal. The government is requiring all local authorities in England to collect the same recyclable waste streams, including food waste, by March 2026.
A timeline and plan for changes to household waste and recycling collections from Spring 2025, was discussed at a Cabinet meeting (21 February) and approved at our full Council meeting (26 February).
Cllr Geoffrey Blunden, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability, said "We are moving forwards with our plans to reduce household waste and improve recycling for the district.
"From Spring 2025, we are proposing to introduce new weekly food waste collections. And we will collect recycling one week, and general waste the next week, using wheeled bins.
"Food waste will be recycled using a process called anaerobic digestion, which creates electricity and fertiliser for farms. This will make a significant impact in reducing the amount of general waste that's thrown away across the district and help us to meet the government's recycling rate target of 65% by 2035.
"Officers will begin further work to deliver the new service. This will include purchasing the necessary vehicles and containers, recruiting staff and a full communication and engagement plan.
"I am confident these plans will support us to modernise our service and be more sustainable. As with any change on this scale, we need to be flexible, and our priority will be to support our residents as we all work together to reduce waste and increase recycling."
We are proposing to phase in changes from Spring 2025 across three geographical areas. This means, depending on where residents live in the district, they will start to receive new waste and recycling services between Spring and Autumn 2025.
There will be a stage 2 of service change which will include us collecting extra recyclable materials, such as plastics, foil, and cartons. We will also review whether glass can be collected every 2 weeks from the recycling wheeled bin.
This stage 2 of service change cannot start until Hampshire County Council (HCC) provide new recycling sorting facilities in the county to process extra materials. Following the government's latest update in late 2023, HCC are working with all Hampshire local authorities to confirm how new materials will be collected and sorted. This work is due to be completed in April 2024 and means that new sorting facilities will not be ready until 2026 at the earliest.
The government has announced they will provide funding to local authorities who must introduce a new food waste collection service by 2026. NFDC are currently expecting to receive £1.8M for the 2024/25 financial year which will go towards vehicles and containers needed for the new service.
Further information:
- for the latest government update on national plans for waste and recycling, visit GOV.UK
- we will keep residents updated as we get closer to service change, view the latest updates about changes to collections from 2025, on this web page
- assisted collections will continue to be offered to residents that need help presenting their waste on collection day
- we will be offering smaller or larger bins to households who can demonstrate they need capacity for less or more waste, read more about the new collection policy, agreed at 5 July Cabinet
- property surveying is currently underway to understand which households will be offered alternative containers to wheeled bins, the work is due to be completed by the end of Spring 2024 and will then be reviewed.
- The first part of our plans to improve our waste and recycling service is underway with the introduction of our new garden waste wheeled bin collection service. Collections for the new garden waste service start from April 2024, and currently over 19,700 residents have signed up
We are planning to phase in service change from Spring 2025 across three geographical areas. The three planned areas will be based around our depots in Lymington, Ringwood and Hardley. Hardley Depot is currently under construction and due to be completed by the end of 2024. Basing service change from these three areas will support us to manage the delivery of new containers, necessary changes to depots, communication, engagement and administration.
As updated at our Council meeting in December 2023, some changes were made to our initial plans to improve waste and recycling services, which were approved in 2022. Following the government's latest update, these changes include collecting paper and card in the recycling wheeled bin, rather than in a separate reusable bag. To account for this, we are now planning to offer a 240 litre wheeled bin for recycling, rather than an 180 litre wheeled bin. View the report explaining the update.
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