The decision is subject to a five-day call-in period for opposition councillors to bid for further scrutiny of the plans, but should no concerns be raised it is expected that changes could be brought in as early as spring 2016.
The proposals approved by the Labour-run West London council include changing the collection frequency of recycling and residual waste collections to run on an alternate weekly schedule, as well as introducing wheeled bins for 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.
Opposition
Opponents of the plans have claimed that many roads in Ealing are unsuitable for wheeled bins, with narrow roads making the storage of large containers difficult. Ealing’s Green Party has also questioned whether a switch to commingling will lead to higher contamination rates for recycling.
However, the council maintains that by adopting the new system it can achieve savings of up to £1.7 million per year and increase recycling by around 7%. The plans also involve spending around £3.6 million on 183,000 new bins.
Ealing claims that the cost of kerbside sorted collection is significantly higher than commingling due to the additional time at the kerbside and uncompressed waste requiring frequent tipping.
The council has assessed the system in terms of its compliance with the separate collection requirements under the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations, applying the technical, environmental and economically practicability (TEEP) test.
Kerbside sort
Recycling and refuse collections across the borough are carried out by contractor Amey, after it acquired services firm Enterprise in February 2013. Enterprise took over the service from previous contractor May Gurney in April 2012, after it was awarded the £300 million 15-year collection contract in July 2011.
Ealing had hinted that it may look to switch to a commingled service during negotiations for the contract, with budget cuts and the rising cost of waste disposal cited for the possible switch – and has made allowances within its contract for a change in collection method.
Commingled material will require sorting at a materials recycling facility (MRF) and the council is yet to identify a suitable plant to process the recyclables. Viridor’s Crayford MRF, which currently processes material on behalf of Ealing’s West London Waste Authority partner Hillingdon, or Grundon’s Colnbrook MRF could be likely destinations.
Kerbside sort collections in Ealing were originally run by the community recycling group ECT, which was awarded the council recycling contract in 2004. May Gurney took control of the seven-year contract in May 2008 after its acquisition of ECT.
Well Well Well! Nothing like tight budgets to bring forth some sense in eliminating high cost/low efficiency multi-bin collection systems.
I bet other councils will think a little more about rationalising collections and saving money and also lowering carbon footprint.
It would be better to make recycling compulsory while there is still a green box system – while you can see what has been put out for recycling.
Many terraced houses and cottages don’t have the room for these enormous bins.
We should be encouraging people to REDUCE their waste and not INCREASE it!