Many of you will know that in my day job, I work for Pendle Council which has now become famous (or should it be infamous?) in recent weeks for having a high number of Covid-19 cases. This has resulted in extra restrictions in place locally, and any further lockdown easing is paused. I was asked on a call recently if this is affecting anything waste related, and at the moment we are not seeing anything different to others. I suppose the concern is about when schools re-open, will some businesses have to close in order to counteract the possible consequences? Already we have seen commercial waste tonnages fall and then slowly rise as restrictions were lifted, but this could again affect our local businesses and the economy.
What we are seeing locally is an increase in the bulky collections we are handling, related to the fact that we stopped charging for bulky waste in March this year. The number of bulky collections we are now dealing with has more than doubled, and fly tipping is slightly up when compared with previous years. There was an assumption that fly tips would rocket when we introduced charging for bulky waste a couple of years ago, but we have proof that this is not the case. Curiously, there is some speculation that HWRC restrictions may be linked to increases of fly tipping, and we would be interested to know if your area is seeing increases in fly tips near HWRCs – please let us know by posting on our discussion forum if you think this is true or not. You will need your LARAC log in for this; contact admin@larac.org.uk if you want a reminder.
It has just been announced that the RWM 2020 exhibition and conference is not going to happen this year; having already been postponed from its usual mid-September slot to November, it will now take place in September 2021. No doubt that was a hard decision to make for the new organisers, and we hope 2021 will be the year that we can reconvene all the postponed events including the LARAC UK Conference. However, don’t forget that we have an online LARAC UK event, free to all LARAC members and there is no limit to the number of officers in your authority who can be registered. Head to this link now to secure your place.
In the last few weeks, I have done two lots of award judging; the National Recycling Awards and Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management. It was a bit of a welcome break from all things coronavirus related and it is really encouraging to read a lot of local authority entries with many great examples of best practice. Winners will be announced towards the end of this year with both organisations hoping to have a live event. If you missed entering those awards, then fear not! There is still time to enter the LARAC awards, although the closing the date of Friday 4th September is not long off. You can apply here for one of the six categories: Best Communications Campaign, Best Partnership, Best Team, Best Waste Min/Prevention, Best New Idea and Outstanding Contribution to recycling (individual award). Good luck!
