Appendix A
PROPOSED PILOT GREEN (GARDEN) WASTE COLLECTION SERVICE
Background
Boston’s residual waste collection tonnages increase sharply over the spring
and summer months and tail off each winter and anecdotal evidence from
these statistics and the collection crews underlines the fact that a large
percentage of this is green (garden) waste placed in the residual bins each
fortnight and consequently landfilled at Lincolnshire County Council’s (LCC)
expense. For the past four years, Boston has used a Waste Performance
Grant from Defra to operate a ‘Saturday’ service where householders can
take their green waste to one of many sites visited by our refuse freighters on
an alternate weekend basis. Around 3000 tonnes of compostable waste has
been collected over this four year period, but this is only scratching the
surface as there are still large volumes of green waste being collected in the
residual waste bins from the vast majority of homes, as can be noted from the
results of LCC’s survey below.
As part of its plans to develop an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility as an
alternative to landfill, LCC commissioned a survey collecting samples of
residual waste from each of the Districts within Lincolnshire, carried out in late
March and early April 2009, with an analysis of the stream being scientifically
measured immediately thereafter. The results of this exercise were quite
startling. Whilst across the whole of Lincolnshire, garden waste accounted for
11.3% of the sample, in Boston it was 31.3% whereas across those Districts
offering a kerbside service, the volume of Green waste varied between 3.7%
and 6.4%. A further sample was undertaken by LCC in September 2009 and
the element of green waste in Boston’s bins had increased to 38% of the
sample.
The Borough Council delivers in the region of 18000 tonnes of waste to the
Slippery Gowt Landfill site. Given that around a third of our waste during the
growing season is compostable material it is reasonable to estimate that
around 5000 tonnes of this total could be diverted if a green waste collection
service was provided to all residents.
Introduction
Those households that have been identified as being included in the kerbside
pilot scheme will be asked, for the duration of the pilot (as a minimum) to use
their blue bin for garden waste, and will be provided, free of charge, a supply
of blue recycling sacks for their recyclate. Additionally, they will no longer be
permitted to put any garden waste into their residual bins.
Proposal
With the assistance of all collection crews, 10 rounds have been identified for
inclusion in the scheme and each of those households will have its garden
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waste collected on a fortnightly basis. Two rounds for each of our five main 26
tonne routes have been selected and we have picked those days when the
volume of garden waste within the residual bins is at its highest.
As a result, half of the chosen households will have their collection on a
‘residual’ waste collection (i.e. green bin) week, with the other 50% being
collected on a recycling (blue) week. In other words, if your garden waste
collection happens to be due on a residual week, you will present your green
(residual) and blue bins together – the blue bin being filled with garden waste
- and on the blue week, you will present only your blue bags containing
recycling. Therefore, half of households will have two collections in one week
and one the next, and vice versa.
We have trialled the semi-permanent fixing of a 1000litre bin (with its wheels
removed) to the rear of the refuse freighters which will be used to manually
load bagged recyclate into. This will be tipped into the rear of the lorry after
every few households, when the container becomes full – this process is
similar to that which we use on the Saturday service where members of the
public and our staff manually tip bags of garden waste into the bin. The
provision of this low level container will negate the need for the crews to throw
bags into the rear of the vehicles themselves, as all of our vehicles are fitted
with bin lifts which are, by definition, high-level. This will also eliminate the
need for a low backed vehicle.
Clearly there are some manual handling issues as, for the first time in many
years, we will be loading 10 of our rounds on a dry recycling week to some
extent manually, rather than via the time-honoured bins on automatic lifts for
each container. At the same time, however, having spoken to a number of
members of our operational staff about the proposal, we believe that the
collection regime will be potentially as straightforward as the current method,
and given that the product will be presented in transparent bags, there should
be no reason why the current quality of material collected should suffer.
Having visited the local composting site at Organic Recycling earlier on this
week, it is clear that the company is unable to accept any compostable waste
in bagged form. Even biodegradable sacks are not acceptable, as they do not
conform with their licence. All waste has to be in loose form, so the only
practical way of loading garden waste is via a contained bin, hence the desire
to use the ‘blue’ bin.
Discussions have also taken place with Greenstar/Biffa, who takes the
Council’s dry recycling as part of a contract with LCC. (At the moment, a
reasonable proportion of our dry recyclate is in bags – where we collect side
waste from residents who produce more than their allotted 240L bin will hold).
I spoke with Steve Oulds, their Commercial Manager and floated the idea that
we would perhaps be looking for their agreement to present a greater
percentage of our product in bags, as clearly we did not wish to create any
issues with their reception facility and, indeed the contract itself. Steve had no
issue as he is still very pleased with the quality of our material and, having
signed an agreement for several hundred tonnes of bagged recyclate per
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week from another customer, Biffa will be capable of handling a much larger
volume of product delivered in this manner.
LCC has calculated that on average each household furnished with a bin for
green waste will produce 0.4 tonnes of garden waste per year. In Boston’s
case, we have historically collected garden waste anyway and it is understood
that if we were to provide garden waste bins for kerbside collection it is likely
that a third more green waste would be produced than at present.
This proposal will offer a service to around 40% of the district so in the course
of a year it could be estimated that around 2000 tonnes of green waste could
be diverted. The proposal would offer a 14 week period from the 1st August
2011 which is around a third of the growing season and therefore it would be
reasonable to expect that in the region of 700 tonnes of green waste could be
collected /diverted. As the gate fee at the composting site Organic Recycling
is currently some £65 per tonne less than the landfill equivalent, diversion of
700 tonnes of green waste would equate to a saving of £45,731 during this
period. In the event of the Borough being able to collect say 900 tonnes the
vehicle would be required to travel to the disposal site 8 times per week, but
clearly this would result in greater savings to the County Council in the region
of £58,797.
Rounds for Inclusion
Week One
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Area
Round 2
Round 1*
Round 4
Round 1
Round 5
Wyberton/Boston SW
Boston West
Leverton/Chapel Hill/Boston West
Boston North
Fishtoft/Boston E
* A small number of properties on this round might benefit from access
to a communal container for Green waste.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Round 3
Round 4*
Round 5*
Round 2
Round 3
Kirton/Frampton
Old Leake
Swineshead/Amber Hill
Boston East
Butterwick/Freiston
These proposed rounds will offer the service to a good cross section of the
Borough, with many urban and rural areas covered. A number of these
locations are already ‘covered’ by the Saturday Garden Waste service, and it
is proposed that where the new kerbside service is to be delivered, that, in
any of these areas, the corresponding Saturday location be deleted and
additional collection points be provided for those areas where no kerbside
service is offered, which will ensure that the Borough Council continues to
provide a service to as wide an audience as possible.
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Costings and Issues
Additional Costs for kerbside collection





Vehicle hire and running costs
Staffing and associated oncosts
Supply of recycling sacks 3 per fortnight for all properties in the
scheme
Advertising/Promotion
Contingency
PILOT GARDEN WASTE SERVICE
FROM 1/08/11 TO 04/11/11
2011/12
2011/12
2011/12
BASED ON
5 TRIPS TO
CROWLAND
PER WEEK
BASED ON 8
TRIPS TO
CROWLAND
PER WEEK
SENSITIVITY
ANALYSIS
(BASED ON
8 TRIPS)
5,439
6,900
6,101
6,900
6,101
6,900
10,150
5,737
10,150
5,737
10,150
5,986
4,257
500
8,299
4,449
6,811
500
8,299
14,299
7,106
500
11,066
10,990
45,731
58,797
58,797
45,731
58,797
58,797
0
0
0
STAFF COSTS
1 x Driver*
1.5 x Loaders**
VEHICLE COSTS
Hire of 26T Refuse truck
Fuel
OTHER COSTS
Cost of transporting compost to
Crowland
Advertising
Blue recycling bags
Contingency
TOTAL REVENUE COST TO BBC
FOR GARDEN WASTE SERVICE
POSSIBLE RESOURCES
AVAILABLE
LCC Funding - covering the saving
from the tonnage being diverted to
compost from landfill.
TOTAL NET POSITION TO BBC
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Note on staff costs
*Only the driver will be required to make the additional 3 journeys and 1.5
hours @10.50 per journey has been used.
**1.5 loaders is an average, based on 3 men and 2 men crews.
Opportunities






Substantial volume of Green waste diverted from landfill making
significant savings for LCC
Potential improvement in quality of recycling ( it will be visible within the
bags)
The weight of residual waste/green bins will reduce for the duration of
the scheme to reflect the green waste removed from this stream.
Using a 1000 litre bin on the rear of the vehicle will remove severe
manual handling requirements and there will be no containers to return
to the presentation point.
Each bin of garden waste that is put into the blue bin represents a
saving of £1.50 per bin on landfill costs.
The pilot is flexible and if there is capacity to expand the rounds we will
do so. (see comment below about geographical issues)
Risks


Educational issues to ensure that householders within the scheme use
bags to contain their dry recyclables, as we will be unable to lift
individual blue bins and that bagged garden side waste is not
presented.
Advertising and promotion – need to ensure that everyone included in
the scheme is fully aware of the changes to their collection
arrangements for the duration of the pilot.
Requirements
 A separate A to Z round sheet need must be produced showing all of
the roads that are included within the scheme (broken down into wards
 This information needs to be held centrally at the Municipal Buildings
and Fen Road to ensure that any enquiries can be dealt with efficiently
either via the telephone, email or in person. There will be areas within
the same villages and within the Town, at the point where the Rounds
physically meet where certain residents will receive the service an
others will not.
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