What is the current status of the RCHW service in Essex?

All 21 Essex RCHW sites have been closed to the public since the 24 March in response to Government guidance to only leave your home for essential travel purposes, and to adopt social distancing measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Essex CC stance on RCHW services is consistent with the CIVID-19 advice to stay at home and only leave for essential purposes

What is the current status of the waste collection services provided by the districts?

-       Currently all residual, food, clinical and trade waste services are operating as normal. 

-       78% of dry recycling services are operating as normal (the remaining are operating but with a reduced collection frequency).   

-       75% of garden waste services are operating as normal (a further 17% are likely to come back on-line in the next few weeks)

-       Approximately 66% of bulky waste services are currently suspended

How does the position of Essex on RCHW services compare with other Waste Disposal Authorities?

All of the waste disposal authorities in the Eastern region closed their RCHW on or around the 24^th March, and these services have remained closed since.  It is estimated that approximately 90% of the RCHW sites in the country have been closed.

How does the position of Essex district collection services compare with the national situation?

The waste collection services in Essex are operating more effectively than the national average.  This has undoubtedly helped to relieve the public demand for RCHW as most waste types are being collected at the kerbside.

Has fly-tipping increased since the RCHW closure?

Recording fly-tipping levels vary from week to week.  It is therefore not possible to draw any conclusions from the available data.  Operational team feedback is that the levels currently being seen are in line with normal fluctuations

When is the government due to review it position on the current ‘lockdown’ advice to the public?

On the 16^th April the Government announced an extension for ‘at least three weeks’ to the social distancing restrictions and the ‘stay at home’ advice currently in place

This week the government announced that they were asking councils to plan for the organised opening of household waste collection sites and that they would be publishing guidance on this. We expect to receive this guidance next week.

What difference does closing the RCHWs make in tackling COVID-19?

The cornerstone of the governments approach to tackling COVID-19 is slowing its spread to enable critical services to cope. 

This is achieved through both social distancing and avoiding all non-essential travel so as to reduce the potential for person to person contact and ease pressures on critical services.  Closure of the RCHW has reduced the number of non-essential journeys in Essex by an estimated 65,000 a week

Is there a public health implication to opening the centres?

The Director of Public Health currently advises that these centres remain closed.

Opening them would unnecessarily compromise social distancing and he would not support this, at this time when gains are fragile, and the government are rightly pressing social distancing to continue and advising people to stay at home.

Did the Government recently advise that RCHW should be open, stating they are a critical service?

DEFRA recently produced guidance on the prioritisation of waste services in which RCHW services were classified as a ‘moderate priority’.  The core waste collection services were classified as a ‘high priority’.

DEFRA confirmed that the need for RCHW services is more present if collection services start to fail.  The efforts of Essex waste collection authorities have ensured core collections services have remained operational partially mitigating the need for RCHW to open.

Did the recent DEFRA guidance state that a journey to a RCHW could be deemed ‘essential travel’?

DEFRA confirmed that a journey to a RCHW to dispose of waste would only be deemed essential travel, and therefore permitted under the current approach to tackling COVID-19, if ‘the build-up of waste in the home … pose a risk of injury or to health’. 

The current good service status of all collection services in Essex is very good, meaning there is little risk of waste build up is occurring to a level where it could be deemed detrimental to health or cause risk of injury.

What is the legal status of the guidance recently produced by DEFRA

This is non-statutory guidance aimed at assisting local authorities in making decisions.  DEFRA recognised that local circumstances meant that the guidance and proposals may not be relevant to all.

When will Essex consider re-opening the sites?

As the decision by Essex to close the RCHW sites was in response to the public health impacts of continuing to operate the sites any decision to reopen will also be based on public health advice.

It is likely that one of four scenarios will trigger a decision to reopen the RCHW sites

1)    Government relax or amend the current guidance regarding social distancing or what constitutes essential travel

2)    Waste collection services are unable to operate meaning the public health impacts of waste build up outweigh the public health impacts of opening the RCHW

3)    The current restrictions continue to operate for an extended period of time meaning it is no longer practicable, reasonable or safe for residents to continue to store bulky waste at home

How quickly will the RCHW sites be open again to the public?

This will be led by government and public health advice.  We are expecting an announcement from Government with regard to the current lockdown measures around the 8^th May.

If at this point the essential travel measures are relaxed, we will commence activity to reopen RCHW centres.

It is expected that it will take a few weeks to remobilise the RCHW operation and be ready for the public

Can social distancing be achieved at the centres?

In its guidance DEFRA confirmed that if RCHW sites are opened, it is essential that social distancing is maintained.  We expect this to still be the case when Essex sites are opened

The Essex RCHW are not able to operate normally and achieve social distancing requirements.

Social distancing can only be achieved at the sites by limiting the number of users allowed on site at any one time, and working with users to ensure all social distancing rules are followed

How many users will be allowed on site at any one time?

This will vary from site to site and will be communicated prior to the sites opening and following site surveys and discussion with the RCHW contractor.

The maximum number of users on site will be based on what can be achieved whilst maintain a 2m social distance.

Once a decision is made to reopen the sites will all 21 RCHW sites open?

It is unlikely we will be able to achieve social distancing at all sites whilst operating a viable service.

Surveys are currently being undertaken and are due to be completed by the end of April however we are expecting that the smaller sites may not be able to reopen under social distancing requirements.

How many sites can operate under social distancing requirements?

Subject to survey, we expect at least 70% of the sites could operate

Which sites will not reopen when a decision is made to remobilise the RCHW service?

This is subject to survey however it is likely to be the smaller sites that would be difficult to operate with social distancing or those where impacts on the surrounding area will be significant.

The sites (subject to survey) that are likely to be more difficult to operate are Dovercourt, West Mersea, Mountessing, Waltham Abbey and Lawford, Burnham

Other sites where queuing can cause problems within the neighbourhood will also be subject to special consideration would include Rayleigh and Pitsea.

Have the sites that won’t reopen been decided?

No - this is subject to survey and discussion with our contractor.

Every effort will be made to open as many sites as possible and we expect to be able to confirm sites for initial re-opening by the end of the month.

Will all the sites open at the same time?

It is our intention to reopen all sites, where social distancing can be effectively manged and the site is viable, on the same day to spread the load.

Why don’t you open all sites even if you can only allow one vehicle on site at a time?

Where sites can only accommodate a very low number of vehicles at any one time it is more beneficial to utilise these staff on larger sites where more users can be accommodated.

Our focus will remain on providing as many sites as possible and being able to accommodate as many users as possible

Will a booking system be operated to manage users at the site?

A booking system has been considered as an approach to manage throughput, however development and testing of a system is likely to delay the re-opening of the sites and will slow access into the sites whilst car registrations are checked.

As it is important, we are able to get users through the site quickly and we want to be able to accommodate as many users as possible in a day, we are proposing to reopen the sites without a booking system.

This position will be reviewed if the sites become overwhelmed.

What restriction will be placed on users?

We will not be permitting any vans or trailers onto the sites

At some sites we may reduce the range of materials that can be recycled/accepted so we can maximise throughput.

What requests will you make of users?

We will ask the following of all users

-       Not to come to the site if they are shielding/self-isolating or are showing any COVID-19 symptoms

-       In the first few weeks of reopening not to come to the site unless they have waste which they have to dispose of because its continued storage may cause injury or pose a risk to health.  We expect we will relax this after the few weeks once the initial service demand has subsided

-       To only bring waste to the site that they have to dispose of an consider delaying works which generate waste

-       Not to bring any waste to the site which can be disposed of or recycled via kerbside collections

-       Only one person from each vehicle should unload waste, unless absolutely necessary 

-       To avoid multiple journeys to the site and allow everyone a chance to access the site

-       To sign up to ECC social media feeds to get the latest news on the sites

-       To use the sites during off-peak times

A proactive communications campaign will be launched prior to re-opening

What Changes will there be on sites?

-       Hand sanitiser will be available at all sites and increased cleansing regimes will be in place

-       Site staff will not be able to assist with the unloading of cars

-       The layout of sites will be changed, additional signage will be in place and floor markings to assist with social distancing

-       Some bins may be removed from sites and recycling opportunities reduced to improve flow

-       Staff will actively manage flow through the site and adopt a ‘one out - one in’ policy when on-site vehicle capacity is reached

-       Subject to available staffing all sites will operate 7 days a week

-       Subject to available staffing/planning operating hours of sites will be increased

Can the Borough/City/District Council assist in any way?

It is important that we jointly own all communications to the public and coordinate our activities.

To assist with this we would welcome support from partners with

-       Enforcement

-       traffic management

-       relaxation of side waste policies to reduce the need for users to come to the RCHW

-       reintroduction of community ‘crunch’ schemes and bulky waste collections

Will the RCHW be able to cope with the demand for the service?

The simple answer to this is we don’t know.  Much will depend on the public responding positively to our requests to initially use the service sparingly, so the service does not become overwhelmed.

The operational steps we are putting in place are designed to maximise capacity and increase throughput which will put us in the best position to accommodate demand.

If the service cannot cope what will be done?

We expect demand to subside once the backlog of waste that residents are storing has been disposed of. 

If in the early stages the increased operating hours and capacity are not sufficient further considerations will be made on how restrictions are put in place to limit who can use the site.   

What is the earliest date that sites will re-open?

If the government announces a relaxation of the current restrictions on the 8^th May and the public health risk from operating the RCHW has satisfactorily subsided, we would anticipate sites would become operational later in May.