Birmingham links fall in waste arisings to recession

Birmingham city council has become the largest council to date to link the recession to a decline in waste arisings, claiming that a reduction in spending on new goods by its residents led to a 4.72% in the amount of waste they produced between 2008/09 and 2009/10.

The council, which is the most populous single local authority in England, said that, while it believed the reduction in volumes was “in part” due to retailers using less packaging, the economic climate looked to be a “key cause” for the decline.

And, it highlighted the positive impact the fall in volumes had had on its finances, in terms of reducing the amount of money it had to spend on waste disposal and increasing the amount it could spend on recycling facilities.

In 2008/09 the city council produced 459,759.82 tonnes of household waste, which fell to 437,263.04 tonnes in 2009/10. The fall of 22,496.78 tonnes representing a 4.72% decline.

Commenting on the figures, councillor Timothy Huxtable, cabinet member for transportation and regeneration at the city council, said: “The latest figures we have produced show some very significant and interesting patterns.

“Overall waste levels are down and this will be in part due to the gradual trend of retailers using less packaging, but the fact that we have seen a significant drop in just 12 months indicates that other factors are at play.

“The recession has hit Birmingham and the rest of the country hard in the last year. People have been spending less on goods and therefore it is highly likely that this is a key cause for waste levels dropping,” he added.

The impact of the recession, and continued economic slowdown, on waste arisings was acknowledged at the highest level last year when Defra revealed it planned to review its projections for municipal waste growth in England due to a full in waste volumes caused by the economic climate (see letsrecycle.com story).

Treatment

Alongside the fall in waste arisings, Birmingham city council also reported an increase in its household recycling rate – from 30.41% in 2008/09 to 31.97% in 2009/10, while it also highlighted the decline in the proportion of waste it sent to landfill from 18.1% in 2005/06 to 12.25% to 2009/10.

The council collects waste and recycling material through its in-house collection service. This is then sorted and processed by Veolia Environmental Services under a 25-year contract with the city council which began in 1994. A significant proportion of its household waste is sent to an energy-from-waste incinerator operated by the French-owned company in Tyseley.

And, the council noted that the share of its waste sent for treatment at this facility had remained “stable” over the past few years at around 60% – with 62.09% of household waste being sent there in 2009/10.

Under the contract, the council is aiming to achieve a 35% household recycling rate by 2012, using a service that involves weekly kerbside collections of residual waste and fortnightly collections of recyclables.

In terms of recycling, paper and card are collected in a blue box, and glass, cans and plastic bottles are collected in a green box, while on the alternate week green sacks are used to collect garden waste.