South Yorkshire Municipal Waste Management Strategy

The four councils which make up South Yorkshire – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield – are all working to the same goals to deliver high quality waste and recycling services for those who live, work, study, visit or conduct business within the region. Our aim is simple and challenging: by working together we intend to reduce, re-use, recycle and recover energy from 95% of South Yorkshire’s waste by 2021.

What is the South Yorkshire Waste Strategy?

The South Yorkshire Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2017 – 2021 is the first Joint Waste Strategy between Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Councils and sets out our joint priorities to deliver quality waste and recycling services across South Yorkshire. Our Strategy sets out how we will deliver our key strategic priorities:

Educate and inspire

Our vision is to encourage and inspire children and adults across South Yorkshire to make less waste by reducing, re-using and recycling more.

A reliable service

Our vision is to work hard to deliver and maintain a dependable and reliable service to all our customers.

Work together

Our vision is that all four councils will work together more closely to deliver value for money services.

Utilising technology

Our vision is to continue exploring how waste technology can be used to improve recycling and waste services.

Influence decision-making

Our vision is to be proactive to influence decision-making on waste at a European, national and local level, to drive investment into infrastructure within the South Yorkshire economy.

Download The South Yorkshire Municipal Waste Strategy 

What have we delivered?

Our teams have been working hard to deliver results against our strategic priorities. Some of the activities we had planned have been put on hold due to the upcoming Resource and Waste Strategy for England which aligns closely with the strategy for South Yorkshire.

Our results so far can be seen below:

Educate and Inspire

Our residents have been working hard with us to reduce the amount of household waste each year. Our aim was to reduce this by 2kg per household per year, and in the last year alone we have seen a massive 30kg reduction per household.

We also aim to deliver reduce, re-use and recycle campaigns to at least 100,000 households each year. We have successfully delivered campaigns focussing on food waste prevention, monthly re-use tips, improving the quality of recycling we collect and promoting home composting across South Yorkshire.

We aim to make waste education resources for Junior and Secondary pupils available. We have conducted a survey of schools to establish the types of resources they would most like to see and which subjects they would like to link to. We are now working hard to deliver these resources. The Coronavirus pandemic has made us refocus on those that can be delivered in a more adaptable way to either small or large groups.

A reliable service

Our work on this priority has been put on hold while we await the new Resource and Waste Strategy for England.

Work together

Our work on this priority has been put on hold while we review it.

Utilising technology

We have been working to ensure that all new and replacement refuse collection vehicles are fitted with GPS tracking, camera systems and in-cab technology. This allows us to better ensure the safety of our crews and deliver a high-quality service to residents. The in-cab systems allow crews to report issues or concerns in real time and can be utilised to ensure collection crews are aware of properties that require assisted collections or are entitled to additional bins etc, as well as to record bins that are not presented for collection or contain the wrong items.

Influence decision-making

We are actively engaging in all consultation opportunities made available to us to help shape the upcoming Environment Bill and Resource and Waste Strategy for England. We are also working with central Government to look at the impacts that Brexit may have on the industry as a whole and on the waste collections made in South Yorkshire and the disposal of this waste. In addition to this, all the South Yorkshire Councils have declared climate emergencies and are working together with other organisations in the region to establish carbon reduction targets. This strategy will contribute to these.