Recycling proficiency test
Waste is a vote winner. Local authorities are obliged to provide a domestic waste collection and disposal service to residents across their boroughs, but it is a source of constant worry and challenging budget management.
Domestic rubbish collections are a hot topic. Their frequency is often debated by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 and their complexities argued over by residents and home owners. Councils have to make difficult decisions about the collection and disposal of waste, balancing environmental needs against costs and demands of the local communities.
Waste has become more complex in recent years with the growing awareness about the environment and the introduction of recycling targets. The different approaches to recycling are confusing for residents, but for those living in low, medium and high rise properties, it is not just what to recycle that is a problem - it is how it is done as well.
If councils are to attain their targets and meet the demand for recycling that the public aspires to then they must make it simple and easy. If you are living away from the kerbside this immediately poses a problem.
In fact there are some clear inequalities experienced between the collection of recyclate materials from kerbside properties, and those provided for low, medium and high rise social housing properties.
Traditionally in order for residents living in this type of dwelling to participate in recycling waste, they have been expected to place this form of waste in receptacles at quite some distance from their door step. This acts as a disincentive, participation rates are low and waste that could be recycled is placed into landfill waste streams leading to issues with blocked chutes and overflowing paladin bins that in turn produce litter around estates and a food source for vermin.{mosimage}
What's needed is a policy and service that reaches out to every tenant, resident and homeowner. Too often, the traditional bin man has given way to waste operatives that no longer engage with the community. Our solution is to work with the community in providing an effective solution.
In the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon- Thames Connaught devised what we described as a 21st Century Recycling Collection Service that provided residents with the means to participate and helped the council achieve their obligation to redirect waste away from landfill and into recyclable waste streams.
Our model breaks down in to four steps. Firstly, the resident places commingled recyclate (plastics, paper and metals) and glass separately into orange recycling sacks. The sacks are then placed outside of their front door on a pre designated day of the
week when collection is due to be carried out at their address (residents will have received promotional material - including leaflets and fridge magnets - detailing what day of the week sacks will be collected). Thirdly, our team will then collect the orange sacks on the designated day and place them in a dedicated 3.5 tonne collection vehicle for transportation to a waste transfer station located for distribution into recycling streams. Lastly, the total number of sacks collected at each location is entered onto the teams PDA to assist in providing statistical analysis and provide the
foundation for the keystone to the scheme, being following up with processes of education.
The driving factor behind the success of the service is the process of education that is provided in conjunction with collection rounds. Throughout the week the team knocks on doors and talks directly to residents about how they manage their domestic waste and recycling. Where residents are not recycling or placing the wrong items in sacks, the team will actively try to communicate with them at the time of collection in order to provide them with guidance on how, when and what to recycle. The scheme has been very successful and we are keen to roll it out to other boroughs. Participation rates reached around 70 per cent and we collected about 988 sacks of commingled recyclate and 222 sacks of glass every week.
This adds up to around two tonnes of waste per week being redirected away from landfill and into recycling streams. This kind of approach gets results and builds confidence in the community that the issue of waste is being taken seriously. It educates the residents, helps achieve recycling targets and if it is managed efficiently, is cost effective too. But it means a return to the traditional values of engaging with the tenants.
