Residents and businesses will be asked their opinions on a draft waste strategy for Newcastle beginning Thursday 31 May.
Newcastle City Council wants to hear what people think about its broad outline for the strategy that will shape how the city deals with waste over the next 15 years.
It is setting up an online questionnaire, Let’s Talk Newcastle, and asking focus groups their opinions. The consultation is the latest step on a journey that will make Newcastle a world leader in waste reduction, recycling and reusing waste.
Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Nick Kemp, said: “Everybody produces waste, so this is an issue that affects each and every one of us.
“Programmes like Blue Planet demonstrate the terrible consequences for our environment when we don’t deal responsibly with waste – but I think the public are beginning to recognise this and we are going through a bit of sea change in attitudes.
“We want to harness that change in attitude to help create an intelligent wide-reaching strategy that makes Newcastle a cleaner, greener city that other cities can learn from.
“This consultation offers residents and businesses a valuable opportunity to come forward and tell us what they think about our approach.”
The council’s war on waste started over a year ago when it set up the Newcastle Waste Commission – a body of experts to explore the issue of waste in Newcastle.
Over six months they listened to individuals, community groups and businesses and published in February a major report which set out a series of recommendations as well as practical ideas on waste reduction.
The ideas in that report, No Time to Waste, are being used to inform a new Waste Strategy.
The Council is now seeking the views of the city on the strategy’s vision, ambition and outcomes in a consultation that begins Thursday 31 May and runs until 28 June.
The second stage of the consultation will involve feeding back to the participants their views on the options and actions to be taken. That begins in August and runs for six weeks.
The results will be used to refine the final draft of the Waste Strategy which will then go before Cabinet in October for final approval.
To take part in the consultation please visit: www.letstalknewcastle.co.uk/