Household Recycling Centres: Waste Access and Acceptance Policy (WAAP)

2.1 As part of its overarching Waste Strategy and its principle of helping to protect the environment by prevention and minimisation of waste, the council seeks to prevent and reduce waste in accordance with the following waste hierarchy. The council encourages Buckinghamshire residents to support this waste hierarchy which ranks the various waste management options in order of environmental impact.

This is the basis of Buckinghamshire Council’s Waste Management communication plan. The waste hierarchy is based on environmental foot printing, it sits within the wider circular economy approach to managing resources and is widely accepted by experts in the waste industry.

2.2 Prevention and minimisation - The most effective way of reducing our environmental footprint is by preventing and minimising the amount of waste we create in the first place. Residents are encouraged to do this by, for example, shopping smart and home composting.

2.3 Re-use - We can re-use many items ourselves; alternatively, there are numerous re-use opportunities that exist in Buckinghamshire. These are good places to contact other people and organisations that may have use for unwanted items, for example charity shops and online re-use forums. The Council has re-use shops at Aston Clinton and High Wycombe HRCs and re-use items are accepted at all of the council’s HRCs. HRC staff will make decisions on whether items are re-useable or not. Site staff, users and visitors are not authorised to sell or barter. The only sales permitted at HRCs are those from HRC re-use shops.

2.4 Recycle - Many items can be recycled, and the council provides collection services for recycling materials from residents’ kerbside. The Council provides HRCs for residents to recycle items which may / may not be accepted through kerbside collection schemes. Further information can be found on the council’s website and digital ‘Waste Wizard’ tool which helps residents to decide what to do with different types of waste to encourage more recycling.

2.5 Energy recovery - the Council has invested in energy recovery through its Energy from Waste facility at Greatmoor. The facility thermally treats up to 350,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum generating electricity transferred into the national grid. This waste comprises of both household and commercial waste that would otherwise be disposed of in landfill sites.

2.6 In accordance with the principle to provide cost effective facilities for disposal of waste that are sustainable and maximise re-use and recycling of waste, the council has taken in to account its current population, geographic factors, and future housing growth.

2.7 Buckinghamshire covers an area of around 1,565km2. The total population of Buckinghamshire is 547,060 (2020). The population is projected to increase by 19,300 (3.5%) from 2020 to 2030. This figure could be higher if new dwellings continue to be built in the administrative area. There is, on average, 350 residents for every km2 in Buckinghamshire.

2.8 The council makes provision for re-use, recycling, treatment, and disposal of a wide range of household waste across its HRC network. There are also a number of voluntary and third sector organisations that provide networks for re-use of unwanted household items.

2.9 The council is required to produce development plans which set out planning policies for the local area. These plans also allocate areas for future development and identify areas that should be protected from development.

The development plans usually include:

• Local plans
• Mineral and waste plans
• Neighbourhood plans

The plans provide allocations and supporting policies to develop future HRCs closely aligned to future growth areas.

2.10 In the long term it is recognised there is planned to be considerable future growth within the administrative area. This matter will be considered by the council in order to plan for HRC site betterment for the medium to long term.