A major push towards recycling is proposed under a new Rutland waste strategy.

The county council is set to discuss its Municipal Waste Management and Streetscene Strategy 2021-2035 at a meeting on Thursday evening.

Then, the Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny Committee will receive a presentation from Penny Sharp, the council's Strategic Director of Places.

A report she prepared for the meeting said: "The current Strategy is now outdated and redundant. "

"As part of the reprocurement the existing waste collection and disposal contracts it is necessary to refresh the strategy to reflect current pressures, opportunities and legislative changes."

"Once approved, the Strategy will form the basis of our waste management

Kerbside waste and recycling collections

Bulky household waste collections

Street cleansing operations

The report continued: "The delivery of these services resulted in 21,751 tonnes of municipal waste in 2019/20, with a recycling rate of 56.4% (2019/20), placing us in 29th position out of 341 English local authorities. However, the recycling rate has been steadily declining in recent years.

"It is now a pivotal time in the resources and waste sector: the basic logistics of managing an increasing population and the rubbish that produces, combined with an urgent need to ensure the disposal of rubbish is ethically managed, minimising the impact on our environment."

In its strategy, the council hopes to increase its recycling rate from 56.4% in the 2019/20 financial year to 65% by 2035.

If approved as expected, there are also several short-term priorities for the period between 2021 and 2024.

These priorities include undertaking "education and promotion activities" to increase the amount of recyclable material from the residual waste stream and undertaking a kerbside recycling survey to see how many households are taking part in the collection service, amongst others.

The council also seeks to reducing residual household waste from 9.27kg a week, as now to 6kg by 2035, achieve a net-zero net-zero waste management carbon footprint before 2050, and reduce the current number of fly-tipping incidents from 219 in 2019/20 to 200 a year by 2035.

Collecting less waste, it hopes, will help the council reduce its streetscene, waste collection and disposal costs by 10% by 2025/26.

The council reports "significant budgetary pressure" to deliver services with reduced funding from central government.

In 2019/20, waste management and streetscene services cost Rutland £214.02 per household to deliver, the report also said.