Exeter food waste collection: no date yet

Vehicles and drivers not available

Food waste collections will be rolled out ‘gradually’ across Exeter, but the city council says it cannot commit to ‘specific dates.’

Plans for kerbside collections of glass and food were first announced in 2019, but last year the rollout of the glass service was put on hold indefinitely.

In November, a pilot of the food service began in the Alphington area, with the Labour-controlled council saying it would then introduce the scheme city-wide when it is able.

In a report to be presented to a council scrutiny committee on Thursday [31 March], the council says it: “depends on the availability of drivers, vehicles, tipping facilities and on the announcement of legislation and government funding.”

The update comes after councillors recently clashed over the long-awaited rollout, with the opposition Conservatives demanding it to be introduced city-wide “as a matter of urgency.”

The latest recycling statistics for Devon revealed just 28 per cent of waste was recycled in Exeter in 2020/21 – less than half of neighbouring East Devon.

Speaking at the budget meeting in February, Councillor Anne Jobson (Conservative, St Loyes) slammed the figure as “appalling” and said the service should be rolled out fully by the end of the new financial year [March 2023].

“It is said on the doorstep over and over again, ‘why can’t we have what they have in East Devon with the sufficient food waste collections?” Cllr Jobson told members.

In response, Councillor David Harvey (Labour, Pinhoe), portfolio holder for city management, made an impassioned defence of the work being carried out, rejecting another claim that food waste collections hadn’t been rolled out because of a lack of money.

“The funds are there and have been there. The issue is we cannot get vehicles. We have one, we have another arriving hopefully in May. It is ordered but supply chains are what supply chains are.

He added: “We also cannot find drivers. We appointed two new drivers during a week, and by the beginning of the next week they had been poached by our competitors.”

The council’s report to this week’s meeting blames a semi-conductor shortage and the global pandemic for the short supply of vehicles, and that it is: “working with our national leasing company to look at all avenues available to us.”

“We expect to have one more vehicle by mid-May and that will allow the next phased expansion of the service to go ahead. The current predictions are that there may be further build slots available towards the end of the year.”

The report says the availability of HGV/LGV drivers is also a concern, a problem being faced by many councils locally in Devon and across the country.

Stating that wage increases for these drivers in the private sector are currently topping 15 per cent in some cases, it adds: “We are working with our HR team to try and address this disparity, but we do not have deep pockets.”

The council also says a “number of challenging constraints” around its licence to operate at its Exton Road recycling centre means it cannot currently tip food there, meaning it’s instead going to the Suez facility at Greendale Business Park in East Devon which has “limited capacity.”

It goes on to say: “We appreciate there is overwhelming public desire to see food waste collected separately in Exeter. However, in the light of the many considerable challenges we have faced in getting the first stage of this service off the ground, we can only commit to our intention to see food waste collected across the city as soon as possible and not to specific dates.”

Of the 1,227 properties in Alphington currently benefitting from the food waste pilot scheme, the council says 84 per cent are participating, with: “extremely positive regarding the frequency of the service and its ease of use.”

On glass kerbside collections, councillors will be told they will “remain from glass banks for the time being” but the plan is to adopt them “eventually” once the government has reported back on a number of waste strategies that could impact councils.

Members will debate the topic at a customer focus scrutiny committee held at the Guildhall on Thursday evening [31 March].