Community Liaison Group Minutes

Notes from the meeting of the Community Liaison Group on Tuesday, 25 November 2025, at 6pm at the Manvers site.

Attendance

Non-members

Apologies

Written updates from Biffa, BDR, the CELO and JWSMedia had been circulated previously. Brief summaries and further updates were given verbally at the meeting and CLG members had the opportunity to ask questions.

1. Welcome and introductions

The acting chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. He stated he was stepping in for the BDR Contract Manager at the meeting.

2. Notes from the last meeting on 13 May 2025

These were agreed as a true record. A CLG member pointed out that people in Doncaster had only just been informed by the Council about changes to collect plastic pots and trays, nine months after collection changes had been introduced.

3. Issues arising

No issues were raised.

4. Biffa BDR update

The Biffa BDR Contract Director summarised and updated his written report. He noted that Council inputs year on year were increasing more than expected:

22/23 = 207,700t

23/24 = 209,400t

24/25 = 211,760t

25/26 (April to October) = 123,777t

The Manvers site had accepted just over 7,000t of third-party waste between April 2025 and October 2025.  Recycling performance during the period was at 14.28%.  Steady outputs and capture percentages had been maintained and were in line with budgets.

In August there had been a trailer fire at the Barnsley transfer station.  Following a previous fire involving mattresses they were now stored in an articulated trailer outside.  The August fire had damaged the trailer, but the transfer station infrastructure had not been affected.  The procedure of storing mattresses outside had proved effective.

There had been some delays at the Ferrybridge FM1 due to storage levels and reliability issues.

Preparation for Christmas was well underway with facility readiness and staffing.

A member of CLG asked if any decision had yet been made about cross-border usage of HWRCs. They were advised to check their Council website for any HWRC policy changes.

CLG members asked if recent government new waste initiatives such as Simpler Recycling had impacted waste streams at Manvers. They were informed there had not been any noticeable increase in waste tonnage as many of the items such as pots and tubs were light in weight.

Biffa Contract Director

5. The Councils’ (BDR) Waste Team update

The Senior Contract Officer BDR PFI Waste Team summarised and updated his written report

He said the Contractor (Biffa formally Renewi) continued to manage the project well with minimal issues reported. The BDR team continued to monitor their performance and raise any issues as needed.  There had been no issues with contract waste deliveries over the last several months, all waste had been accepted and processed as required by the contract.

The BDR team continued to work with the Contractor on updates and changes to the facility to meet contractual requirement and environmental permits. These included work on the anaerobic digestion pasteurisation, ammonia scrubbing system, reduction in emissions, enhanced fly management/suppression, and infrastructure improvement/repair work.

As previously advised the government had announced new waste initiatives and changes to its environmental policies. They were introducing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) -now live, Simpler Recycling -March 2026 for households, a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) - October 2027 and the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) -2028.

As previously stated, all councils had an exemption to separately collect food waste due to the Bolton Road waste treatment facility meeting the aims of the policy by diverting waste from landfill and into a compost like output while also generating electricity to be used on site.

All councils met or were working towards being compliant with the policy requirements for recycling collections.  As with most councils nationally, the BDR councils had expanded the range of materials to be collected from commercial premises this year (commenced 2025, a year before the Household Requirements).

The BDR team was working closely with the Contractor, along with external contractors, to monitor, forecast, and ensure that the contract met the requirements of these policies when implemented in the near future.

As previously reported, in October 2024 the PFI waste treatment contract had been purchased from Renewi PLC by Biffa PLC.  The BDR council team had worked closely to scrutinise the sale and subsequent management of the contract, undertaking due diligence.

The contract specification and requirements had remained the same under the new owners and no changes to service delivery had been seen.

Over the last year, following the sale, the contractor had been working hard to maintain their high standards, while also looking to make improvements, and had been engaging with the BDR team and the councils regularly.

Senior Contract Officer BDR PFI Waste Team

6. Community Education Liaison Officer update

The Community Education Liaison Officer summarised and updated her written report.

A new member had joined the CELO team. The new CELO Assistant started in September to assist the CELO, working three days a week.  This brought the team back up to capacity, equivalent to two full-time employees.

The team was continuing to deliver education sessions on request. In September, it delivered three Rubbish Adventure sessions in one day for Worsborough Ward Alliance. This was part of their Love Where You Live project which encourages community pride and proper disposal of waste and recycling. The children enjoyed learning about the processes that happen at the plant to sort our general waste. Social media posts about the day had been shared on Barnsley Council’s social media channels.

The team had supported national waste campaigns including Recycle Week and International E-Waste Day.  It regularly ran scheduled site tours for members of the public and at request for community groups. Since the last meeting, 13 tours had taken place.

The spring 2025 waste composition analysis had found no significant changes in waste behaviour.  It showed that around 15% of residual waste was compatible with kerbside recycling and garden waste services and around 35% was made up of food waste (both avoidable and unavoidable) and just over 1% was made up of electrical and electronic items including batteries, vapes and appliances. The autumn 2025 analysis had recently been completed, and the results were expected in December. It was anticipated that the next round would be undertaken in March 2026.

The Corporate Social Responsibility fund had been launched in September under the new name of ‘Biffa BDR Community Environment Fund’. Groups had been invited to apply for funding for environmentally beneficial projects.  £12,000 had been made available from the fund this year as it combined the 2024/25 and 2025/26 funds. 38 applications had been received from across Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham and the quality of these had been higher than in recent years. Five projects had been selected this year to receive a total of £12,255.70. The projects approved for funding by the financial team were:

Barnsley - Worsborough Common Primary School – Allotment project £1,500

Doncaster - Yorkshire Bike Shack – For running the project £2,000

Rotherham - Clifton Learning Partnership – Community allotment project £1,007.70

BDR area - Kids Plant Tree’s - Tree planting project £5,800

Final confirmation regarding the fifth project was awaited. Once all approved, a press release would be issued about the successful projects.

In the coming months the team was planning to launch a TikTok channel as well as share lots of festive content.  It was also working on a flyer to promote the school sessions and community talks on offer. This would be shared with members once ready.

In the new year the team would be running a food waste campaign, a pre-loved outfit challenge and developing promotional material for the Councils on what goes in recycling bins and safe disposal of batteries and vapes.

The CELO pointed out that domestic batteries and vapes could now be put out for recycling in Doncaster.

Community Education Liaison Officer

7. Communications update

Over the past six months press releases had been issued covering key waste reduction topics. These included:

• Supporting a national campaign from the charity Keep Britain Tidy which

emphasised the need to prevent waste being created in the first place.

• Launching the new name of the ‘Biffa BDR Community Environment Fund’ inviting local groups to bid for a share of this year’s £12,000 fund.

• Promoting the national Recycle Week campaign Rescue Me, themed around residents recycling everyday items, such as shampoo bottles, rather than placing in household waste bins.
• Promoting the national campaign The Great Cable Challenge encouraging residents to recycle unwanted cables rather than placing them in household waste.
• Promoting a series of public CELO talks delivered at the Manvers site and out in the community.
• Offering advice on how to reduce waste at Christmas.

Press releases had been posted on the BDR website and circulated to the three local authorities.

JWSMedia.

8.  Any other business

The acting chair raised the on-going issue of CLG being without a permanent Chair for more than three years, with no current CLG member wishing to take on the role previously held by a group member.  In the interim, non-CLG members had been acting as chair at the biannual meetings until such time as a permanent Chair was found. However, given a vacancy of more than three years, this was no longer felt to be a sustainable solution. There had also been previous discussions with CLG members about the future direction of the group, its remit and the difficulty in attracting new members.

A number of suggestions for how to support CLG in future were put forward by the acting chair including introducing a quarterly member newsletter and replacing fixed meetings with ad hoc meetings called by CLG members to discuss specific issues of interest.  The suggestions were approved by the CLG members and one member volunteered to chair any future ad hoc meetings.

The acting chair felt the quarterly newsletter had the advantage of delivering more up to date information to CLG members than the current twice-yearly meetings and allowed for a speedier response to any queries.

9. Date, time, and venue for next meeting

In future, meetings of the CLG will be held on an ad hoc basis in response to member requests.