Ealing to make commingling switch in June

Collections are currently carried out in the borough by contractor Amey – formerly Enterprise – which was awarded a 15-year contract by Ealing council in July 2011.

Plans for a potential switch to a commingled service were first mooted during negotiations for the contract, with budget cuts and the rising cost of waste disposal cited for the switch. Councillors then gave the move the green light in June 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story) with the council’s executive director for environment and customer services Keith Townsend signing off on a variation to its contract with Amey in February.

AWC

As part of the service change the West London authority will also be switching to an alternate weekly collection rota, as well as introducing wheeled bins – at a cost of around £3.6 million – for the collection of both residual and recyclable waste.

Currently, residents receive a weekly collection of waste and recyclables, with plastics presented in a reusable white sack, a green box for paper, cardboard, glass and cans as well as textiles, alongside weekly black sack collections of residual waste. Some areas of Southall, North Acton, Alperton and Sudbury already have wheeled bins for refuse.

Opponents of the plans to change the service and introduce wheeled bins have claimed that many roads in Ealing are unsuitable for wheeled bins, with narrow roads making the storage of large containers difficult.

The authority’s plan to switch to a commingled collection service was also singled-out by pressure group UK Recyclate which wrote to the council to warn that it may considering legal action against the move (see letsrecycle.com story).

The group claimed that the switch may not have satisfied the requirement for separate collections of recyclables as set out under the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations.

TEEP

The Regulations state that local authorities and contractors must collect at least paper, metal, plastic and glass separately unless it is not technically, environmentally or economically practicable (TEEP) for them to do so, or if it is not necessary to produce ‘high quality’ recycling.

However, following a response from Ealing, UK Recyclate is understood not to have pursued any further action. Ealing has claimed that a full TEEP assessment has been carried out and supports the proposed change in collection method.

Recycling

The council claims that the new recycling collection system could boost the amount of material collected for recycling by as much as 7% as well as delivering an annual saving of £1.7 million in operational efficiency.

Deliveries of wheeled bins began on 6 May, with the last collections involving boxes, sacks and bags to take place on the week beginning 30 May.

Commenting on the new containers, Mr Townsend, said: “The new bins are going to make it a lot easier for people to recycle and will keep our streets cleaner by cutting down on the number of black bags ripped open by foxes and by preventing recycling being blown around the street from open containers on windy days.”