12 November to 10 December: Chance to comment on draft waste strategy
Central government published a new national waste strategy in December 2018, and we have been reviewing our services and developing a new waste strategy for New Forest in line with the government's objectives.
The Draft Waste Strategy (DWS) was approved on 4 November 2020 at the council's cabinet meeting.
Read latest news update about the waste and recycling strategy.
A formal four-week period of engagement has now opened giving residents and other stakeholders the opportunity to learn more about the draft waste strategy, and to comment on the proposals.
The documents below provide more details about the proposed changes to the waste and recycling service in New Forest and explain the reasons for the proposed changes.
Download a summary of the draft waste strategy, some more specific information, or the full draft waste strategy:
Summary - Draft waste strategy [346.55KB]
Further information - Draft waste strategy [61.9KB]
Full document - Draft waste strategy (see page 56 for list of acronyms used) [2.75MB]
How to comment
Your comments on the proposed changes to the waste and recycling service are important to us and will help us shape the new service. Please take some time to read the draft waste strategy summary or the full draft waste strategy before submitting your feedback using the online survey form below.
Give your feedback on draft waste strategy
The feedback we receive will be reviewed and will be used to help us assess whether these proposals can be taken forward into a final waste strategy in 2021.
Any changes to the waste and recycling service will not be implemented until 2022 at the earliest.
Due to the latest coronavirus restrictions we would encourage you to use the online survey form.
For people unable to access the online information and survey form, we are also providing printed draft waste strategy resident engagement packs which contain the draft waste strategy summary and further information documents, a survey form, and a pre-paid return envelope.
Printed resident engagement packs are available from our information offices (check opening days and hours before you travel) or you can request to have a pack sent to you by calling customer services on 0238 028 5000.
Printed copies of the full draft waste strategy document are only available on request by calling customer services on 0238 028 5000.
The government's national waste strategy, "Our Waste, Our Resources: A Strategy for England" was published in December 2018 and contains objectives for dealing with the nation's waste, and suggestions for how these objectives can be achieved.
In the future, the items that we collect in the New Forest and the way we collect them will be heavily influenced by the national waste strategy.
The strategy was subject to a consultation, and we responded to four key consultations between February and May 2019:
Our response: We welcome any measures that improve recycling and waste minimisation, and believe creating consistency in household recycling across the country and introducing a deposit return scheme would be progressive steps to meeting some of the strategy's key objectives.
Extending the producers' responsibility for packaging and the introduction of a plastic tax, are important actions that we hope will encourage businesses to use more recycled material and move this country towards a more circular economy.
We are pleased that government have indicated that local authorities will be equipped with funds to implement any legislative changes and look forward to seeing the outcome of these consultations.
The results of the consultation indicated strong support for many of the objectives suggested in 'Our Waste, Our Resources: A Strategy for England' and this informed the content of the Environment Bill 2020, which includes the following:
As a result of the above developments a working group of council members and officers was formed in August 2019. The group has been working on developing a new waste strategy that will comply with forthcoming legislation but will also meet the needs of our community.
We carried out a survey with residents in January and February 2020. The survey was conducted in face to face interviews and via an online questionnaire, and received almost 4000 responses.
The working group is now in the process of considering the following:
Current best practice and what other councils do
It is likely we will have to introduce this service which will change how we collect waste. We will need to look at how the collection of waste and recycling is carried out alongside this new service.
It is unlikely our current recycling collection service will comply with future legislation.
Residents value the services we provide, but want to see improvements in the recycling service, for example being able to recycle more materials, such as food, and a wider variety of plastics.
Share this page
