The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) is asking local authorities across England to support its survey on waste services, which is restarting from 1st February.

The Association is resuming the fortnightly survey after reports of a resurgence of disruption to waste services due to COVID-19.

ADEPT will again be working alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and industry sector networks including the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC), the Local Government Association (LGA) and the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO) to gather intelligence on the impact of the pandemic on waste services.

Steve Palfrey, Chair of ADEPT’s Waste Group said: “We have decided to resume the survey after hearing multiple reports of increased disruption to waste services. We want to understand the problems experienced in local areas and the extent to which they are impacting on services including household waste and recycling, bulky waste collections and household waste recycling centres, as well as commercial services.

At the time of the last survey in September, most local waste services were operating with minimal impacts and reduced levels of staff absences from self-isolation or sickness. Obviously, the picture is very different now and we want to know how teams are managing. Once again the survey is short and designed to provide a snapshot view.”

Local authorities will receive emails shortly from the network groups providing details of how to access the survey and the information to be captured. Previous waste surveys are available here: https://www.adeptnet.org.uk/covid-19-waste-survey-results