The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership met to discuss partner updates, a review of their terms of reference, and a waste communications update. The meeting also included a discussion of the partnership's forward plan. Councillor Danny Brookes of Lincolnshire County Council was elected as Chairman of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership for the year 2025/26, and Councillor Richard Wright of Greater Lincolnshire Leaders and Chief Executives was elected as Vice-Chairman.

Food Waste Collection Communication Plan

Rachel Stamp, Waste Partnerships and Projects Manager, presented a report on the draft communications plan to support the rollout of the Simpler Recycling reforms, including separate food waste collections, as required by the Environment Act 2021¹. The communications plan was designed as a template for each of the Waste Collection Authorities to use, with support from the East Disposal Authority.

The plan included:

• Information on why food waste collections matter, including environmental, financial, and community benefits.
• Instructions on how to participate using the provided caddies and liners.
• Reassurance that support and guidance would be offered throughout the transition.

The communications plan uses a multi-channel approach including: direct mail, social media, newsletters, school programmes, websites, community events, radio, signage, and vehicle livery.

Engagement tactics include: pre-rollout letters and leaflets, digital guides, caddy stickers, myth-busting videos, face-to-face engagement, and use of local champions and volunteers, with tailored communications and translated materials for high-need areas.

Internal and partner communications include: toolkits, staff training, FAQs, landlord briefings, and consistent intranet/newsletter messaging to align council and partner responses.

The plan includes an evaluation framework to track awareness, participation rates, contamination levels, and reach of communications, using feedback loops, web and social analytics, and customer service call data. It also includes risk mitigation strategies to manage misinformation, language barriers, operational delays, and uneven participation using proactive, data-led interventions, as well as district-specific communications to address local challenges.

The communications leads were scheduled to continue working together to deliver the programme to heighten awareness and support the delivery of the food waste collection roll out.

The report recommended that the LWP note the progress to date and continue to support the communications programme across Lincolnshire.

Appendix A to the report was the Communications Plan for Food Waste Collections in Lincolnshire, which included district/borough council-specific implementation plans. For example, for Boston Borough Council, key local challenges include a high proportion of communal living areas such as flats and colleges with shared bin stores, language barriers in some communities requiring translated materials, and limited space for outdoor caddies for some residents. Tactical adjustments include translated leaflets and posters in key community languages, engagement with housing associations and college facilities managers, and community information sessions or pop-ups in high-density residential areas.

Appendix B was the Food Waste Collections Communication Schedule.

Lincolnshire Waste Partnership Terms of Reference Review

Kay Boasman, Head of Waste Management and Market Services, SKDC, presented a report to provide the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership with an opportunity to consider and review its Terms of Reference².

The Terms of Reference for the LWP state that they must be reviewed every two years. The last review was undertaken in 2023.

The report recommended that the LWP discuss and review the current Terms of Reference.

Partner Updates

Members of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership provided the following updates:

• South Kesteven District Council: A full route analysis had been carried out and the new routes would be rolled out in the coming months, with 90% of residents seeing a change to their collections. The new depot project was continuing, and good progress was being made towards a full roll out of food waste collection.
• City of Lincoln Council: The Policy and Scrutiny Committee had recently considered the implementation separate paper and card collections and supported the deferral of the decision until later in the year, due to the additional workload and costs which would result from the implementation.
• East Lindsey District Council: 27 new vehicles with integrated pods for food waste collection had been ordered and would be delivered in the coming months. The authority was trying to be more proactive in relation to fly tipping and would be purchasing some quick reaction cameras which would not require mains power.
• Boston Borough Council: 14 new waste vehicles had been purchased which had pods in the back for food waste. Fly tipping was down by 7%, however, nationally it was increasing.
• South Holland District Council: A full meeting of the Council had been held on 12 June 2025 which had considered the change from bin bags to wheelie bins, following a full consultation with members.
• North Kesteven District Council: All but two of the 31 strong fleet of diesel fleet had been converted to vegetable oil biofuel, and there were also an additional four electric vehicles. A number of decisions had also taken place which included approval for the recruitment of 24 FTE drivers, the provision of a 12 month supply of caddy liners to residents, £1.4m for a depot expansion and the Deputy Chief Executive would be carrying out an operational review of food waste collection after six months.
• West Lindsey District Council: Negotiations were underway for the purchase of caddy liners. All the caddies had been received, and the vehicles were ready to start the service next April.
• Lincolnshire County Council: The third Community Repaint shop at Tattershall had just opened, and the two existing shops were proving very successful. The Tattershall Re-use shop was performing well, and had so far diverted 34 tonnes from recycling and waste streams, and had sold over 10,000 items. There had been a positive response at the Lincolnshire Show from 99% of people that were engaged with.

Performance Measure Update

The LCC Waste Partnerships and Projects Manager presented a report which provided an update on the suite of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) which measured progress against the vision and objectives set out in the LWP's Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS). In addition to the KPI's previously agreed and reported to the LWP, the report included the measure on quality of recyclables to highlight the improvements achieved through twin-stream collections and 'Right Thing, Right Bin' campaign.

Regulatory and Legislation Update

The Head of Waste Management and Market Services (South Kesteven District Council) presented a report which provided an update on relevant legislative and regulatory changes since the previous meeting of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership held on 6 February 2025. The primary focus within this period has been the increasing focus on food waste collections, with DEFRA³ announcing the transitional resource grant to support the delivery of weekly food waste collections in early March.

Food Waste Update

The Head of Waste (Lincolnshire County Council) provided an update in relation to food waste collections and advised that the Partnership continued to work collaboratively to implement segregated food waste collections and disposal in accordance with the simple recycling initiative and statutory legislation. It was reported that New Burdens funding had been provided by central government to Waste Collection Authorities to implement capital purchases including the procurement of new vehicles and caddies. The Waste Disposal Authority (LCC) was not eligible for this funding but had committed £9.6m towards waste infrastructure upgrades in order to meet the statutory requirement to facilitate disposal.

It was also highlighted that a LWP Communications Officer had been appointed who would be developing the communications strategy for the future roll out of the service throughout Lincolnshire. It was noted that a further update and the Communications Plan would be brought to the next meeting of the Partnership.

The report provided updates in relation to the Waste Disposal Authority infrastructure progress, liner procurement and the road map for project delivery.

Lincolnshire Waste Partnership Forward Plan

The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership considered its Forward Plan for 2025/26 and the following was highlighted:

• It was suggested that the Terms of Reference be considered at the next meeting of the Partnership
• It was queried whether a piece of work could be carried out on what a single waste authority could look like, in light of plans for local government reorganisation, as it was likely that this could result in significant savings.
• It was queried whether traffic movements at HWRC⁴ and their usage could be examined, as issues were being experienced with queuing traffic, particularly at the site in Bourne.