ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
26 MARCH 2008
ITEM 05
ANNEXE 2
KITCHEN WASTE, CARDBOARD AND PLASTIC BOTTLE RECYCLING:
THE NEXT STEPS
How will the proposed collection arrangements differ from the present?
At the present time the arrangements for the collection of household waste are as
detailed below.
Glass, newspaper, cans, textiles (dry
recyclables) for recycling
Garden waste (if household subscribes)
for composting
Residual waste for landfill
Weekly kerbside collection
Fortnightly collection
Weekly kerbside collection
The arrangements for collecting dry recyclables and garden waste will not change.
There will be new opportunities to recycle materials currently collected as part of
residual waste. The estimated composition of this material is shown in the table
below.
Material
Food waste
Misc combustibles
Cardboard
Green waste
Paper
Non recyclable paper and
card
Non recyclable dense
plastic
Plastic film
Glass
Misc non combustibles
Plastic bottles
Other metal
Textiles and clothing
Cans
Miscellaneous
Total
.
Estimated
Comment
annual
tonnage
5470 Kerbside recycling to be introduced
1740 Includes shoes, wood, carpet,
disposable nappies etc. Collection
service for nappies to be introduced.
1690 Kerbside recycling to be introduced
1500 Kerbside recycling currently on offer,
participation increasing
1480 Kerbside recycling currently on offer
1090 Hard to recycle
1030 Hard to recycle includes polystyrene
and food packaging.
850 Hard to recycle includes carrier bags
and packaging film.
630 Kerbside recycling currently on offer,
participation increasing
590 Hard to recycle
500 Kerbside recycling to be introduced
480 Hard to recycle including aluminium foil.
470 Kerbside recycling currently on offer
280 Kerbside recycling currently on offer
1370 Hard to recycle.
19170
Page 1 of 3
ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
26 MARCH 2008
ITEM 05
ANNEXE 2
The Council intends to:

Collect food waste from each household weekly;

Collect cardboard and plastic bottles for recycling fortnightly from each
household;

Collect the remaining residual waste from each household fortnightly.
A disposable nappy collection service will be available on request to ensure that this
material is collected weekly.
As a result of these arrangements only inert material (see table above) need remain
in a bin for more than a week and the tonnage sent to landfill will be significantly
reduced.
How many containers will householders need to accommodate?
The table shows that the number of containers that householders are required to
accommodate will increase by two.
Material
Residual waste
Glass and cans
Newspaper
Garden waste
Food waste
Cardboard and plastic
bottles
Current
240 litre bin (typical size)
Box
Bag
240 litre bin or bag
Not applicable
Not applicable
Proposed
No change
No change
No change
No change
c25 litre kitchen caddy
180 litre bin or bag
The Council will be investigating the scope to:

Offer a choice of containers for cardboard and plastic bottles;

Offer smaller 180 litre wheeled bins to those who want them for the
containment of residual waste.
Why does the Council ask householders to separate materials for
recycling when some Councils collect mixed materials to be sorted
later?
In taking the decision to separate materials for recycling, the Council considered the
following:

Kerbside and householder separate results in very “clean” recycling materials
with very little contamination through mixing of materials.

As a result the recycled materials have a wider range of uses.

This enables the Council to receive a higher income from the sale of these
materials which helps offset the cost of the service.

Projected tonnages collected are similar to those achieved by authorities using
other means of collection.
Page 2 of 3
ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
26 MARCH 2008

ITEM 05
ANNEXE 2
As more recycled materials become available the premium paid for good
quality clean streams is likely to increase and the Council will be well placed to
take advantage of this.
The alternative adopted by some councils is to collect mixed or co-mingled materials
and to send them to a materials recycling facility for separation by a variety of
automatic processes and by manual sorting. This has the following disadvantages:

It is difficult to achieve complete separation through this means and the
separation process itself is less sustainable because of the energy used, and
the materials are of lesser value because of contamination.

Instead of receiving an income for materials the Council would pay to have
collected materials separated. The additional cost of this, based on projected
tonnages is c£300,000pa.

Although there would be some savings in collection costs they would not offset
these additional costs.
It is true that, in a co-mingled collection of cans, newspaper, plastic bottles and card,
householders would not need a bag for newspaper. This could lead to them having
to accommodate one less container. However, most co-mingled authorities still need
to collect glass separately because of the difficulty of achieving separation at a
materials recycling facility, therefore negating this advantage.
On balance, therefore, the Council considers that the balance of advantage lies with
kerbside separation for most materials.
Page 3 of 3