First UK councils to send nappies for recycling

As of this month the councils are to send absorbent hygiene products (AHP) disposable nappies, incontinence and feminine hygiene products to nappy recycling specialist Knowastes facility in West Bromwich in the Midlands as part of a six month trial.

The trial is designed to determine the most efficient ways of handling the AHP material stream and evaluate the level of demand from householders for the service.

If successful it could lead to a contract being tendered for the material stream for the whole of Wales.

The results of the trial will be managed by SE Wales regional waste coordinator at Resource Efficiency Wales, James Kay.

Consultancy Resource Efficiency Wales coordinates contracts on behalf of Welsh councils in order to achieve efficiency savings. In 2011 it helped to let a landmark contract between nine local authorities for the operation of textile banks (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the trial, Mr Kay said: This material stream is a substantial part of the household waste stream and has benefits two-fold. It diverts this material from landfill and recovers this material making it available for recycling instead. These are important criteria when considering treatment of household waste.

Councils

Currently both Cardiff and Monmouthshire councils are running separate collections of AHP waste from over 2,500 households in South East Wales in a bid to support residents as they move to fortnightly collections of residual waste.

Councillor Bryan Jones, cabinet member for county operations at Monmouthshire, said: Monmouthshire was always pleased to offer the separate nappy collection service to the public and now that we can actually recycle them it makes it a double win for everyone. Nappies and similar waste make up about 5% of our waste stream thats 2,375 tonnes a year.

I am pleased that we are working in partnership with Cardiff City Council. Sharing of facilities, transportation and experience is the most sensible thing to do and I am pleased that our recent investment in the Llanfoist recycling centre and transfer station has made this scheme possible.

Knowaste

Once collected, the nappies will be transported to Knowastes facility by Viridor, which manages the Llanfoist recycling centre in Monmouthshire.

According to Knowaste, the West Bromwich facility, which opened in September 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), will see 95% of the material input recovered. Knowaste sterilises the material using autoclave technology. The material is then sorted to recover the plastic and fibre material which can be sent to be used in the production of new products.

Roy Brown, chief executive of Knowaste, said: With the majority of the UKs 1 million tonnes per annum of absorbent hygiene wastes generated at home, the Cardiff and Monmouthshire recycling trials represent true progress in domestic kerbside collections.

We already work with the UKs leading hygiene and washroom companies to recycle their commercial waste – it is with considerable pride that Knowaste will be receiving waste, for the first time, from local councils and helping them to enhance services, hit recycling targets, improve carbon savings and divert from landfill.

Cheshire

The announcement by Cardiff and Monmouthshire comes just two days after Cheshire West and Cheshire council revealed that it would become the first council in England to launch a weekly kerbside nappy recycling service (see letsrecycle.com story). The material collected in Cheshire will also be sent to Knowastes West Bromwich facility.