Household Recycling Code of Practice: Consultation document

7. Flexibilities

The Code cannot modify local authority responsibilities to collect waste in line with the duties set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The Code contains practical guidance to local authorities in how to adopt an effective approach to meeting their existing statutory obligations in providing waste collection and recycling services. It does not impose additional legal requirements, though local authorities have a duty to outline how they intend to carry out functions of the Code in relation to the collection and recycling of household waste.

Although local authorities are expected to deliver the services set out in the Code to all households, regardless of property type, location or local circumstances, this will not always be possible.

Flexibility was a consistent theme throughout co-design as the policy intention to increase consistency can be hard to deliver with certain property types or in unique settings. There was general agreement that local authorities require guidance in exercising their discretion in how they apply the Code. Some local authorities specifically requested supporting guidance explaining how to assess properties.

The Code supports usage of a “TEEP test”, to assess whether the approach proposed in the Code is Technically, Economically, and Environmentally Practicable. A similar approach is used in England by the UK Government for local authorities to assess provisions in the UK Simpler Recycling rules.

The Co-design Report sets out some of the discussion and approaches that were considered to help local authorities manage these considerations. Very specific or step-by-step guidance was favoured by some, but was harder to agree and risked becoming extensive and overly-complex to implement. The proposed content of the Code is therefore principle-based and encourages local authorities to assess all locations through a common methodology, without seeking to prescribe approaches to specific property types or settings.

Where a local authority assesses that services consistent with the Code cannot reasonably be provided, authorities are encouraged to consider alternative service models that would deliver equivalent recycling outcomes in adherence to their duties to deliver the waste hierarchy. For example: where twin-stream collection containers cannot be provided due to space constraints, the local authority must consider if waste streams can be sorted post-collection to result in the same quantity and quality of recycling.