The rollout of the new system follows a Welsh Government-backed trial of the new container, which consists of three boxes that stack together on a trolley, across 10,000 homes in the borough in 2013.
The container, which is designed and manufactured by Straight, now a part of the OnePlastics group, is intended to be more easily wheeled out for collection than separate containers.
CK Services has delivered the new container to around 41,000 households across the county. After completing the initial pilot phase, the recycling container distribution project was carried out over two phases. Phase one involved the delivery of 20,000 containers during November and December 2014 and the remaining 18,000 containers were rolled out during February and March 2015.
The three recycling boxes that are stacked on top of each other and mounted on a pull trolley with wheels, each container has a flap opening allowing residents to sort recyclable materials into the respective plastic container for paper, plastic and cans, glass and brown cardboard.
Rollout
Jon Eastwood, a spokesperson from Conwy county borough council described the rollout of the new system as ‘smooth’. He said, “CK Services undertook a consistent approach to plan the assembly and distribution of the new stackable recycling system throughout the county. They performed well and the smooth running of the project was a great achievement for Conwy.”
Conwy previously used a mix of boxes and bags for collection of household recycling. The new system is designed to help with the initial sorting of recycled materials and ultimately help save the council time and money on processing costs.
A report to Conwy’s cabinet in summer 2014 suggests that adoption of the new system is likely to lead to a boost for recycling rates of around 1.3% – with the council having achieved a recycling and composting rate of 56.3% in 2013/14. The council also claimed that residents who had been using the stackable boxes during the trial period were happier with the service provision in their area.
The trial also found that residual waste in some areas reduced by up to 4.8% as a result of the use of the new container – while some households increased their recycling rate by up to 6.05%.
A total of £1.5 million in capital funding was set aside by the council for the provision of the improved recycling container system.
Conwy was the first council to have used the stackable box system in the UK – with St Helens council on Mersyside likely to follow suit this year. The council had been following the North Wales roll out ‘with interest’ (see letsrecycle.com story). Bryson Recycling has also used the container for some of its collections in Northern Ireland.
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