SIGNIFICANT changes are being considered to Thurrock Council's waste collection services - with a focus on improving the performance of recycling.

Currently the council is failing in its bid to meet national goals and the performance against target has actually deteriorated in recent years.

A number of changes are planned, including moving some collections to a fortnightly basis - and this has already raised some concerns and fears that there may be job losses in order to enable the council to meet targets.

A statement made to last night's meeting of the council's cleaner, greener, safer overview & scrutiny committee highlighted options and recommendations ranged from extending a successful flats recycling project to restructuring bin collections, introducing a weekly food waste collection and reducing green and brown bin collections to fortnightly.

The council is also considering replacing residual waste collections with a new weekly food waste collection to all households, with associated supporting containers, and an alternate weekly residual collection. It is suggested the benefit of this change, which has been adopted successfully at many councils, is that it encourages residents to consider more carefully what can be recycled and to ensure that they have capacity in their residual bins for items that can only be disposed of in that way.

"Steady decline to stagnation"

The recommendations are in response to the Government's intention to enforce compliance on any council that fails to meet target recycling levels.

Thurrock, at 34.5%, is significantly below the national target of 50 per cent, a fact reflected in the report put to councillors which said: "Thurrock's recycling performance has not improved over the past six years and has seen a steady decline to stagnation since 2014/15."

The report went on to say: "The Council's various waste disposal contracts are due for renewal in the coming year, which presents an excellent opportunity to adopt a revised waste collection regime that helps us to capture a wider range of recyclable materials at kerbside and generate an income from higher quality materials.

"Wherever possible these disposal contracts should be flexible enough to allow subtle changes within our waste collection regime to add to and change the wastestreams being collected; this will allow us to reflect the changing needs of the commodities markets and shifts in public perceptions around the waste-streams they generate in their homes.

"Targeting core recyclables with the potential to generate a revenue stream for the council (as opposed to a disposal or material-handling fee) raises the opportunity to design a waste collection and disposal regime in Thurrock that contributes to funding itself and eases the financial burden from this statutory service.

"The Government is already considering the mandating of a source-separated collection regime and this offers an opportunity to be ahead of the curve while improving on the quality of recyclable materials we collect.

"It also has the potential, when combined with suitable disposal contracts and facilities, to generate an income to offset treatment costs."

After the meeting Labour's opposition leader Cllr John Kent attempted to cut through some of the jargon with his appraisal - and concerns - about what might happen next.

"Deeply uncomfortable"

He said: ""I totally support the need for a greener future but I am deeply uncomfortable about developing strategy with a gun to our heads.

"Let's be clear, the driver behind this is Thurrock Council's continued poor performance on recycling and the likelihood that, within two years, the Government will take the matter out of our hands.

"I can't support moving to fortnightly collection of what's known as the "residual" waste bin - the green bin for most residents - and am very concerned at references to potential job losses within the refuse service that emerged last night.

"I fail to see how shedding jobs makes us better at recycling and frankly, as Thurrock Conservatives look to push ahead with plans to Thurrock build an extra 32,000 houses over the next twenty years, we will need more refuse collectors - not fewer."

The committee agreed to submit the report to the council's cabinet who will decide on the future of Thurrock's refuse service.

You can read the full report on the council's proposed waste strategy for the next ten years here.