However, at present the costs vs benefits in providing recycling bins and litter bins do not add up, research for RECOUP has found.
After surveying 100 local authorities across the UK, the Peterborough-based group said it found that despite all the talk of ‘on the go’ recycling, councils are facing major challenges and costs in collecting recyclables from the streets.
And only a small number of local authorities were able to actually come up with figures to show recycling volumes from on street bins.
Contaminated
Steve Morgan, technical officer at RECOUP, told letsrecycle.com: “Councils are finding that materials are often too contaminated to be recycled and they find that the public are confused about what containers to use. Many are dual units and it isn’t always easy to tell the difference and in some areas the situation is a complete mess.
“My interpretation is that local authorities would rather be spending money on promoting kerbside recycling to ensure quality rather than spending money on street bins for recycling.”
Mr Morgan added that councils are also facing logistical issues and costs in collecting materials separately from bins.
Operational
A view of the difficulties involved in collecting recyclables out of doors came from Steve Brunt, joint assistant director streetscene for the district councils of Bolsover & North East Derbyshire. Mr Brunt said: “We found that the operational difficulties outweigh any potential benefits to ‘On the Go’ collections we would have gained through contribution to our combined recycling rate. The cost vs benefit needs to be proven. We have concentrated on increasing performance kerbside dry recycling and organic waste collections.”
Another local authority officer remarked: “Personally, I see the ‘On the Go’ bins more as a reminder for people to do the right thing.” And, a different authority said that its Recycle ‘On the Go’ trials were abandoned “due to contamination and servicing costs”.
The survey is expected to be considered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in work on the potential for a deposit return scheme for drinks containers for England. The scheme could see funds made available to local authorities to fund more ‘on the go’ bins.
External funding
The Recoup research found that while local authorities need convincing of ‘on the go’ work, factors that would help included full external funding. The report noted comments by one council: “Full external funding for both containers and ongoing servicing costs may be required in order to persuade the council to introduce a service at no cost to the authority.”
Related links
RECOUP
Register for free to comment