The amount of recycling waste that Lincolnshire County Council sends abroad each year - Find a freedom of information request

I am seeking data related to the amount of recycling waste that Lincolnshire County Council sends abroad each year.

1. What tonnage of domestic waste is sent each year, from Lincolnshire, for onward recycling / reprocessing?

Please provide information for the past 3 financial years.

2. For each of the years, what was the tonnage that was sent overseas by LCC or its contractors for recycling / reprocessing? Please break this down by material and receiving country.

3. For each of the years, what tonnage of recycling from Lincolnshire ended up overseas, even if not directly sent there by LCC or its contractors?

4. What factors decide where recycling materials are sent, in particular when they are sent overseas instead of remaining in GB?

5. Does LCC impose constraints on its contractors, on how recycling material disposal options are chosen, and if so what are they?

6. Is the full environmental impact considered? For example market prices versus environmental impacts of haulage?

7. What is LCC's current cost per tonnes for each of the recycling materials collected under its current waste recycling contracts?

8. What was LCC's spend on 'disposal' of recycling waste for each of the districts in Lincolnshire in 2022/23, excluding materials from household waste recycling centres?

9. Do LCC publicly report the end destination of recycling materials and if so where?

We have considered that the information you are requesting is exempt under Section 39 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) where the information requested is considered Environmental Information and we are responding in accordance with the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).

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2. Lincolnshire County Council does not hold this information.

3. Lincolnshire County Council does not hold this information.

4. Our recycling materials are sent to the successful supplier for the relevant contract. The decision of where they go from there is the Suppliers; however they will need to meet the contract requirements.

5. Our contracts require suppliers to treat waste streams in accordance with the UK Waste Hierarchy. In some cases our contracts state what the minimum acceptable level of treatment will be.

6. Haulage is taken into consideration during the tender stage of our contracts. For example, where haulage is involved in a contract we can evaluate the cost of the haulage against the proposed mileages of a bidder. Suppliers are also required to report monthly on their carbon emissions.

7. This information is commercially sensitive. See exception below. 

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9. LCC Report the ends destination of recycling Materials in WasteDataFlow - WasteDataFlow is the web based system for municipal waste data reporting by UK local authorities to government

Regulation 12(5)e EIR Exception Regulation 12(5)(e) EIR refers to the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest. We have considered this at question seven. We understand there is an expectation for information to be made available and that we are transparent in keeping the public informed.