SEP 2025
A partnership approach to waste prevention and recycling
SEP 2025 is a partnership approach to waste prevention and recycling, and has been developed on behalf of all Surrey local authorities through the SEP. Read it below or download a PDF of the report.
Annex 1: Surrey Environment Partnership Work Programme
Objectives
The focus for 2022-23 will be supporting the SEP priorities which are waste reduction, food waste recycling and reducing contamination of dry mixed recycling. Activity will include making service improvements that ensure Surrey residents are enabled to make the changes we are asking of them, as well as communicating and engaging with residents to influence their behaviour and help them understand how their current behaviours impact the environment.
Work will also include providing the required data and insights to inform decision making and improve resident understanding of what happens to their waste, as well as managing the partnership and defining the future waste strategy for Surrey.
The objectives are to:
- Develop and deliver initiatives to support the priority area of waste reduction, with a particular emphasis on food waste.
- Develop and deliver initiatives to support the priority area of food waste recycling.
- Develop and deliver initiatives to support the priority area of reducing contamination and improving the quality and quantity of dry mixed recycling.
- Educate and encourage residents and their children to take action to reduce, reuse and recycle quality material.
- Develop and implement a new recycling and waste strategy for Surrey and associated delivery plans.
- Further improve our use of data and insight in order to better inform decision-making and communication with partners and residents.
- Ensure partners are kept informed and the reputation of SEP continues to be protected and developed.
- Manage the partnership effectively to ensure activities are delivered with appropriate governance and oversight.
- Develop and maintain links with other groups and initiatives to ensure that our work remains relevant in the wider context.
- Ensure that we have the capacity to be able to respond to new issues and opportunities as they arise.
Programme of activity
For each objective we have detailed below the activities for 2022-23. These will be reviewed regularly and updated as appropriate. Also included is how success will be measured for each objective and the input required from partners to ensure successful delivery.
| Objective 1: Develop and deliver initiatives to support the priority area of waste reduction, with a particular emphasis on food waste reduction | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Waste reduction incentive scheme | Continued management of the Rethink Waste scheme currently being trialled in Elmbridge. The trial will run until March 2023, but it will be evaluated from November 2022 to establish whether it should be rolled out more widely within the county in 2023-24. | Reduction in residual waste tonnage in Elmbridge, and resident sign up and engagement with the scheme. | Elmbridge Borough Council: Promotion of scheme. | |
| Compost bin and hot composter ‘sales’ | Run and promote a series of time-limited ‘sales’ which offer residents the opportunity to buy a discounted compost bin or hot composter to manage their garden and food waste at home. | Sales of compost bins and hot composters and return on investment from tonnage diverted. | All partners: Use communications toolkits to share messages and promote sales. |
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| Food waste reduction partnerships | Carry out a review of any organisations that operate within Surrey which we could partner with to promote food waste reduction and reuse, promoting a local circular economy for any food waste which cannot be prevented. | Identification of organisations who are willing to partner with us to reduce food waste. | All partners: Provide details of any known organisations that could be approached. |
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| Food waste reduction online toolkit | Create a new section of the SEP website featuring links to existing food waste reduction tools and national initiatives. Communications to signpost residents to the resources – paid promotion to be covered by campaign budget included under objective 4. | Web page views plus communications reach and engagement. | All partners: − Add link to new section to own websites. − Use communications toolkit to share messages and promote the new online resource. |
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| Objective 2: Develop and deliver initiatives to support the priority area of food waste recycling | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Food recycling at flats | Introduce food recycling at flats where there is currently no collection, including providing bins, liners and communication materials to engage residents in the new service. | Number of properties a new food waste service is provided to. Monitoring of fill levels to assess participation in new services. | All partners: − Provide site details. − Review and approval of communication materials. − Carry out delivery of food bins and caddies. − Carry out crew training (where bins are different from current) including testing on vehicles. − Work with contractor / DSO supervisors to plan new collection routes. − Resolve any collection problems. − Briefing of local customer service team and members. Provide safe storage of bins / associated items. |
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| Re-launch existing food recycling services at flats with improved bins, signage, liners and communication materials to engage residents in the re-launch and increase use of the service. | Number of properties covered. Comparison of pre-monitoring and post- monitoring fill levels and caddy orders to assess increases in participation. | All partners: − Provide site details. − Review and approval of communication materials. − Carry out delivery of food bins and caddies. − Carry out crew training (where bins are different from current) including testing on vehicles. − Resolve any collection problems. − Briefing of local customer service team and members. Provide safe storage of bins / associated items. |
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| Food waste recycling targeted interventions | Roll out of interventions which were successful in previous trials, i.e., use of no food waste stickers on residual bins combined with communications delivered through letterbox. Will be targeted at low performing households, identified via in-cab exceptions data if available, or round tonnage/ local operational knowledge. | Increase in resident participation in the service and/or tonnages depending on data availability. | All participating D&Bs: − Discussion and agreement of data to be used/ areas to targeted. − Review and approval of intervention materials. − Briefing of local customer service team and members. Provision of any caddies or food bins requested. |
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| Explore adding ‘no food waste’ to new residual bins | Explore options for all D&Bs to include a ‘no food waste’ message on all new residual waste bins, to direct residents to use the food waste recycling service. | Identifying a practical approach that can be implemented to include a ‘no food waste’ message on new residual waste bins. | Provide input to discussions of options. | |
| Review replacement food bin policies | Carry out a review of current policies for providing replacement food bins and caddies and assess options to make them easily available to residents. | Reaching agreement on an approach that could align policies to make food bins and caddies easily available to residents. | Provide input to discussions of options. | |
| Investigate regular flats bin cleaning | Investigate and trial options for introducing regular cleaning of communal food waste bins, to resolve hygiene issues and make the bins more appealing for residents to use. | Carrying out trials and producing an options appraisal with a cost benefit analysis for introducing regular bin cleaning. | Provide input to discussions of options. Partners participating in trials: − Provide suitable site details. − Assist in co-ordinating with timing of collections. Briefing of local customer service team and members. |
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| Objective 3: Develop and deliver initiatives to support the priority area of reducing contamination and improving the quality and quantity of dry mixed recycling. | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Contamination reduction at flats | Continuing the rollout of measures to reduce the contamination of communal recycling bins at blocks of flats with significant issues. This will include reviewing bin capacity, introducing reduced aperture lids and locks or providing one-off replacements of broken locks, updating signage and providing communication materials to encourage residents to recycle the right items. | Number of properties covered. Comparison of pre-monitoring and post- monitoring observations of contamination levels to assess improvements in material quality. | All partners: − Provide site details and attend site visits where required. − Review and approval of communication materials. − Carry out delivery of DMR bins. − Carry out crew training (where bins are different from current), including testing on vehicles. − Resolve any collection problems. − Briefing of local customer service team and members. Provide safe storage of bins / associated items. |
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| Contamination interventions | Continuing the trial of targeted letters to residents who repeatedly contaminate. Taking learnings from trials started in the joint contract areas and carrying out further trials in other authorities. | Reduction in the number of repeated contaminators. | All participating D&Bs: − Provide in-cab lock out data as required and agree address lists to target. − Review and approval of communication materials. Briefing of local customer service team and members. |
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| Scope options to procure a third party to carry out monitoring or interventions. This could potentially involve monitoring whether collection crews are correctly identifying and not emptying contaminated bins or tagging bins that are contaminated. | Summary of actions taken by individual authorities to improve crew performance in response to monitoring results. This may include the results of locally managed spot checks/monitoring showing any improvements to performance. Reduction in rejected loads and reduced contamination levels. | All participating D&Bs: − Provide training/guidance to contractor on the expected practise for locking out bins. − Provide round data on streets to target. − Briefing of local customer service team and members. − To act on the results of monitoring, to deliver any required local improvements e.g., crew training. To conduct spot checks following the delivery of any improvements and share the results within three months. |
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| Objective 4: Educate and encourage residents and their children to take action to reduce, reuse and recycle quality material | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Own Your Impact campaign | Year-long communications campaign badged under a new theme ‘Own Your Impact’. To include the following specific campaign phases to support SEP’s priority areas: − 1 x food waste reduction. − 2 x food waste recycling. − 1 x contamination reduction/ recycling education. − 1 x festive season contamination reduction. Ongoing communications activity to encourage and motivate residents to reduce waste, including single-use plastics and to reuse or repair where possible. This will link to national awareness days/weeks and events where relevant. Support and promotion of national WRAP initiatives: − Recycle Week (2022 theme TBC). − Food Waste Action Week (reduction focus). | Independent research to evaluate the impact of the campaign and service guides with residents. This will look at a range of measures such as awareness, message penetration, relevance, persuasiveness, engagement and claimed behaviour change. Digital channel metrics including website visits and social media reach and engagements (e.g., shares, retweets, video views and comments). | All partners: − Use campaign toolkits to share messages with residents and staff through own channels. − Share posts/tweets from SEP social media channels. |
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| Surrey Recycles search tool, app and waste sorting game | Ongoing management, updates and improvements to the search tool, app and waste sorting game which aim to educate residents and specifically reduce contamination of mixed recycling bins. Communications to encourage and increase usage of the tool, app and game undertaken as part of the Own Your Impact campaign. | Increase in the number of searches and downloads of the Surrey Recycles search tool and app and plays of the waste sorting game. | All partners: − Promotion of the search tool, app and waste sorting game. Providing updates when services or acceptance criteria changes. |
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| Service guides and calendars | Creation and distribution of printed annual recycling guides tailored for each area but based on a consistent template. Optional calendars also included where requested. Communication activity on social media to highlight the recycling guides to residents and encourage them to read and retain them. | Independent research to evaluate the impact of the campaign and service guides with residents. This will look at a range of measures such as awareness, retention and message penetration. Social media reach and engagement. | All participating D&Bs: − Providing content for guides. − Reviewing and signing off content. − Providing residential postal addresses where relevant. Use of communications. |
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| SEP digital channels | Ongoing management, development and promotion of the SEP website and social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Budget also covers subscriptions to a photo library for design use, film editing and animation tools, social media management system and e-newsletter software. | Digital metrics including website page views, social media reach and engagements (likes/shares/comments/retweets etc) and video views. | All partners: − Adding relevant SEP website links to own websites. Sharing content from SEP channels on own channels. |
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| Primary schools | Promotion of SEP website educational resources to primary school teachers. | Website visits and downloads of resources. | All partners: Promotion of the resources. |
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| Education programme | Development of additional new resources for the 2022/23 academic year to add to the SEP website. | |||
| Objective 5: Develop and implement a new recycling and waste strategy for Surrey and associated delivery plans | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Key waste policy consultation responses | Produce and submit partnership responses to possible further consultations on the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy including a new written assessment process for separate recycling collection, minimum service standards, recycling credits, proposals from the Waste Prevention Programme for England, and any other waste related consultations that may arise throughout the year. | Agree and submit responses ahead of deadlines. | All partners: • Review and input into SEP responses where necessary. Produce individual response where required using the SEP responses as a template. |
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| SEP 2025: A partnership approach to waste prevention and recycling | Development of ‘SEP 2025: A partnership approach to waste prevention and recycling’, which will look as a minimum to align with the Government’s ambitions such as a 55% recycling rate by 2025 and 65% by 2035 and strive to go beyond this, and begin to respond to decarbonisation by planning changes to our vehicle fleets and infrastructure to reduce emissions in the shorter term and move towards net-zero emissions in the longer term. SEP 2025 will: • bridge the gap ahead of further clarity from central government; • take into account the anticipated changes resulting from the key emerging national policy to support the Resources and Waste Strategy; • provide clear strategic direction for the next 3 years and a longer term vision for the partnership that will continue to follow the waste hierarchy and work towards a net- zero waste trajectory. This will aid the future development of a new Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Surrey post 2025; and • enable us to drive down waste (particularly food and single use plastic waste) and increase the quality and quantity of our recycling. | All partners endorsing and adopting SEP 2025 by March 2023. Delivery of the associated targets. | All partners: - Input into the design of SEP 2025. Endorse and adopt SEP 2025. |
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| Infrastructure & Transport Delivery Plan | To review and document the existing infrastructure, it’s capacity and usage. To consider future infrastructure requirements for managing waste in accordance with the national Resources and Waste Strategy and develop a delivery plan. To develop a plan to decarbonise the collection and disposal transport fleet and establish the supporting infrastructure requirements. | All partners endorsing and adopting the delivery plan by September 2023. Delivery of the associated targets set out in the final delivery plan. | All partners: - Input into the review and documentation of existing infrastructure, it’s capacity ad usage and in the development of future requirements. - Input into the plan to decarbonise the collection and disposal fleet and to understand supporting infrastructure needs. - Endorse and adopt the agreed final delivery plan. |
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| Future governance arrangements | Agree a pathway towards formalising Surrey Environment Partnership governance and approvals processes. | Greater transparency of decision- making. SEP has delegated authority to make decisions on matters such as budget agreement and approvals for strategy consultations. | All partners: - Input into development of proposals. Provide information on individual authority governance arrangements and approvals processes. |
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| Funding mechanisms | Carry out a review of options to introduce a short-term financial incentive to increase food waste recycling and/or reduce contamination, prior to any new burdens funding from government, as part of the SEP funding mechanism. This would recognise the additional cost to D&Bs of expanding services. Agree SEP and WCA funding arrangements for 2023-24 onwards in light of changes that will arise from the national Resources and Waste Strategy. | Reaching agreement on a financial incentive to introduce. | All partners: - Provide input to discussions of options. SCC: Agree and communicate funding arrangements for 2023-24 in time for individual authority budget setting cycles, with the aim of establishing a financial mechanism that will remain year-on-year until further funding arrangements develop through government policy. |
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| Support the development of disposal contract requirements | Support SCC in developing the requirements for new waste disposal arrangements for 2024 onwards to ensure a strategic fit with the future direction of travel. Ensure sufficient provision and management mechanisms within the new disposal contract(s) to ensure quality data is issued and updated in a timely manner and consistent format. | SCC are supported to ensure that future waste disposal arrangements are aligned with the strategic direction of the SEP. The contractor(s) provide quality and reliable data within timescales required. | SCC: - Consultation with partners as appropriate. Districts and Boroughs: - Provide feedback on proposals. |
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| Objective 6: Further improve our use of data and insight in order to better inform decision-making and communication with partners and residents. | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Performance reporting | Use up to date data to provide analysis and insights to current trends and performance against targets, including recycling performance, emissions and contract performance. Produce quarterly performance reports for SEP members and officers. | Members and officers are well informed regarding strategic and operational performance. Strategic decision-making processes are based on a robust and transparent evidence base. | All partners: − Review performance reports and provide feedback on format. Help identify opportunities for performance improvement. |
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| Data management | Management of the SEP waste data system, including contract management and managing the supply of weighbridge data. Management of third-party contractor data so that performance reporting incorporates up to date data regarding materials collected by third parties. | Data gathering from all parties becomes fully automated, without need of further development. | All partners: Support the introduction of new processes and reporting data issues. |
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| What happened to Surrey’s waste | Creation of report and infographic highlighting what happens to the waste collected in Surrey. Communications activity to share the report findings with residents. | Resident engagement with ‘What happened to Surrey’s waste’ report (e.g. website visits, social media engagements). | All partners: − Promotion of the report/ sharing of communications. Surrey County Council: Help with responding to media requests relating to waste disposal. |
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| Future data management system | Develop options for when Open Sky contract ends in February 2023 • Undertake analysis of the OpenSky contract and data system performance, and future development requirements. • Complete an appraisal of the options to manage data following the end of the current contract, with support of D&Bs and SCC. • Undertake procurement/implementation of the chosen option to ensure that there is no degradation of data availability / analysis. | Report identifying the outcome of the review of the OpenSky contract and the potential options for the end of the contract. Successful procurement & implementation of new system. | All partners: − Engagement of officers in the review of OpenSky and the future options. |
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| Objective 7: Ensure partners are kept informed and the reputation of SEP continues to be protected and developed | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Protecting and building the reputation of SEP | Respond to media enquiries from local and trade media, drafting responses and liaising with partners if appropriate. Generate coverage in key trade media (local Surrey media engagement will be undertaken as part of the Own Your Impact campaign). Identify, draft and submit entries for key award schemes to highlight the work being done in Surrey. | Positive media coverage. Nominations for awards. Involvement in industry/Government panels. | None. | |
| Keeping partners informed | Monthly email updates detailing progress, outcomes and upcoming activities in the SEP programme. An end of year report prepared for the June meeting cycle and an Annual Review of activity and outcomes created and published on the SEP website following release of Defra waste statistics. Creation of quarterly Environment Matters email newsletter and distribution to all members and senior officers in partner authorities. | Partner feedback. | All partners: Share information with internal stakeholders. |
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| Member seminars | Develop and deliver a programme of seminars on recycling and waste for all members across Surrey. | Partner feedback. | Help design and deliver seminars where required. | |
| Objective 8: Manage the partnership effectively to ensure activities are delivered with appropriate governance and oversight | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| SEP governance | Agenda planning in consultation with SEP Member and Officer Chairmen. Administration of all the SEP member and officer meetings, including booking meeting venues, dispatch of papers and minute taking. | Smooth running of partnership governance processes. | Attendance at relevant meetings. | |
| Financial management | Monthly budget monitoring processes and production of quarterly reports for partners. Administration of Surrey waste financial mechanisms payments and administration of recycling credits payments for organisations in the Surrey (furniture) re-use network. Identification of potential savings opportunities, service efficiencies and budget reductions. | Timely and accurate reports available for partners to review. Payments are made in a timely manner. Development and approval of a savings plan for 2023-24 and delivery of actions set out in the plan. | All partners: − To invoice for services within appropriate timescales to enable effective and efficient budget management. − To support the delivery of the actions set out in the savings plan. |
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| Programme management | Develop work programme proposals. Manage the SEP work programme for 22-23 by administering a process to plan and design projects and other work that the partnership has agreed to. Monitor and report against progress with delivery to SEP partners on a quarterly basis. | Ensuring projects and other work have an agreed plan to work from. Providing accurate and informative updates on a quarterly basis. | All partners: − Input into planning and help delivery of projects and other work where required. − Review reports and ask for additional information where necessary. |
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| Objective 9: Develop and maintain links with other groups and initiatives to ensure that our work remains relevant in the wider context | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | |
| Fly-tipping/ Enforcement Group | Provide administration support to the Enforcement Group, which is made up of officers from each Surrey authority. | Partners are kept up to date with what is happening across Surrey and issues can be dealt with as they arise. | All partners - relevant officers to attend meetings. | |
| Waste industry groups | Attend meetings and monitor updates from groups such as ADEPT, South East Waste Partnership Managers, NAWDO and LARAC. | Good relationships built with industry and authority colleagues. Insights and intelligence gained from industry experts. | None. | |
| Surrey Comms Group | Attend meetings to share details of SEP work programme and keep informed about other countywide communications work being undertaken. Share toolkits for upcoming SEP activities via Surrey Comms Group for partner communications teams to use. | Use of toolkits/ sharing of messages by partner communications teams. | All partners: − Encourage communications teams to support and share SEP messages. |
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| Planning Officers | Liaise with planning officers to ensure that guidance on bin storage and access is provided to developers. | Best practice shared and consistent guidance used by authorities. | Districts and Boroughs: − Provide case studies and best practice examples. − Liaise with planning officers in their authorities. − Publish guidance on websites where appropriate. |
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| Objective 10: Ensure that we have the capacity to be able to respond to new issues and opportunities as they arise. | ||||
| Activity | Description | How will success be measured? | Partner responsibilities | Budget |
| Crisis and issues management | Rapid response to any crisis or issues that arise during the year. | To be determined by the nature of the crisis or issue and the response required. | To be determined by the nature of the crisis or issue and the response required. | Covered by underspends or reserves as appropriate. |
| Maximising opportunities | Allocate resource to research, develop or deliver new opportunities that emerge during the year. | To be determined by the nature of the opportunity. | To be determined by the nature of the opportunity. | Covered by underspends or reserves as appropriate. |
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