Exeter plans to save 100,000 a year through AWC

Although the majority of Exeter's 50,300 homes already receive bi-weekly collections, around 18,000 still have refuse collected weekly and recycling fortnightly. The council hopes that by converting 14,000 of those still on weekly collections to bi-weekly and making a number of small changes to the way household rubbish is collected residual waste arisings will fall and the service will offer “better value for money.”

The council explained that landfilling waste currently cost it £67 a tonne, including landfill tax, whereas recycling only cost £15/tonne, including recycling credits – making it a much cheaper to handle.

The city council, which has a 36% recycling and composting rate, intends to roll out the new service in September 2010 subject to a public consultation which was launched at the end of August. It expects to receive the first round of feedback from a focus group of 1,000 residents on Saturday (September 26).

Mike Trim, head of cleaning services at the council, told letsrecycle.com: “We started a few months ago and obviously like all local authorities we were looking for improvements for the environment and also ways to save money. We have over 50,000 households in the city and 32,000 are already on bi-weekly.”

Mr Trim explained there would “always be properties that can't do it bi-weekly” but that running fortnightly residual waste collections for a total of 45,000 households would hopefully lead to a drop in waste arisings.

He claimed: “Studies have shown that households on weekly residual waste collections produce 22% more rubbish than households on biweekly collections. If we reduce the frequency of refuse collections then people are encouraged to think about what they are putting in their bin, often realising that they can recycle more.”

Rounds

The move to AWC would coincide with the adoption of new zoned rounds for collections and a four-day working week for refuse workers. The city council claims that this alteration would allow it to avoid the confusion over collections caused by Bank Holidays and save costs on worker overtime.

Fellow Devon local authority, Plymouth city council, introduced a four-day working week for the same reason in November 2008 but had to revise the collection scheme again in February 2009 after encountering a series of backlogs and delays (see letsrecycle.com story).

In addition to the move to AWC and changed working schedule, the collection changes are also set to see residents who put their waste out for collection in back alleys being asked to put it at the front of the property instead.

This move is intended to speed up collections at the kerbside and also reduce the costs incurred by the council in clearing fly-tipping from alleyways. The council estimates that it spends around £10,000 each year removing residual waste from these areas.