Walsall food waste collection service scrutinised

On April 16, cabinet members at Walsall Council approved the new £1.7million scheme which will involve all households being issued with a small food waste caddy for indoors and a 23-litre kerbside caddy to be collected weekly.

It was one of the two options which was presented at cabinet for the new service which all councils must offer before March 31, 2026.

The other option, which was discounted, was to introduce weekly mixed brown bin collections of food and garden waste. It is estimated that this option would require an additional revenue funding of £2.6m.

After the decision was made, Councillor Pete Smith of Walsall’s independent group called it in to be scrutinised.

At the scrutiny meeting on May 13, leader of the independent group, Councillor Aftab Nawaz, said: “It seems to me that the cabinet hasn’t fully looked at all the options ahead of us.

“There’s options which aren’t in the papers, and when you look at the decision-making process there’s nothing that says what has been looked at and what has been discounted.

“That’s a weakness there because a member of the public wants to know how we reached the decision. We just want to know the right decision is being made.”

Portfolio holder for street pride, Councillor Kerry Murphy, said the choice boiled down to the cost of the service.

She said: “We did a feasibility report and this is where we’ve got these costs from. It would cost £1m more to mix the food and garden waste together.

“Although we have a budget to buy the caddies and get the bin wagons ready, we don’t think we’ll get it going forward so it’s going to be an added pressure on the council anyway.”

At the meeting councillors raised concerns about rat infestations, foxes getting into the caddies and people kicking them over.

Councillor Mike Bird asked why the council had not looked into installing a biomass machine and anaerobic digestion machine at the new Household Waste Recycling Centre in Aldridge.

The two machines would mean that the food and garden waste could be put inside the existing brown garden waste bin, and weekly collections would be carried out all year round.

The brown garden waste collection service cost £1,080,000 to operate between the spring and autumn of 2024, according to Freedom of Information figures provided by Walsall Council.

Kathryn Moreton, director for place and environment at Walsall Council, said that the reason it wasn’t included in the cabinet report or progressed was because of time constraints to get the service implemented ahead of the deadline next year.

Councillor Mike Bird moved that the finance officer allocate £100,000 from reserves to bring in expertise to review costs of the service, which was approved unanimously.

He said: “I would like to move the resolution that this committee requests the finance officer to allocate a figure of £100,000 from reserves to look at the options of having a biomass machine on our plant in Aldridge. Also an anaerobic digestion machine to combine green waste and food waste to be disposed of onsite.

“We’re looking at 250,000 households across Walsall that will have one of those caddies, which is currently costed at £1.8 million.

“You can buy a biomass machine for that. What isn’t being taken into account is the electricity that is generated can be offset against this council’s electricity bill, which I think is around £2m a year.

“The second thing is that the product of biochar can be sold at a rate of between £300 to £500 a tonne.

“I plead with the cabinet, really plead with them, to say 'look, this is not the best option, other options are available to us'.

“I implore the cabinet to take £100,000 from reserves to buy in expertise to make the right decision.”