HWRC controls can reduce waste as much as AWC

The research, in a report entitled 'Understanding waste growth at local authority level', which was carried out by Bristol-based consultancy Resource Futures, discovered that both measures led to a reduction of between 80 and 100 kilograms per household per year in the 28 councils surveyed.

“HWRC controls designed primarily to address abuse of sites from commercial waste appear to have had a similar order of magnitude reduction on the household waste stream as AWC with charged garden waste collections,” the report explained.

While it stressed that this comparison could “conceal” the impact of other policies, such as promoting home composting or charging for bulky waste collections, the findings could make CA site permits a more attractive option for councils looking to reduce their household waste, when compared to the often-controversial move to AWC.

Recent months have seen a number of local authorities introduce controls on the use of their household waste recycling centres, including Wirral (see letsrecycle.com story) and the London borough of Hillingdon (see letsrecycle.com story), in a bid to tackle their use by businesses and non-residents.

However, the Resource Futures report concluded that the biggest falls in household waste in the councils surveyed between 2000 and 2008 came when alternate weekly collections, HWRC controls and charging for garden waste were all introduced together.

Impact

In the study, Resource Futures stressed that comparing the impact of HWRC controls and the introduction of AWCs was complicated by them running alongside each other in many of the councils included in the survey.

And, it noted that, while AWCs reduced the amount of residual waste collected at the kerbside, there was some evidence that this waste was then offset into an area's HWRC arisings – albeit with some evidence of this being a “short-term effect”.

Other key findings in the report include:

• Councils which introduced charges for garden waste collection – either with or without the introduction of AWCs for residual waste – saw the biggest net decline in household waste and a significant “squeeze” from residual waste to recycling;
• Combining AWC for residual waste and free garden waste collections boosted recycling rates but this was not “equally matched” by a drop in residual waste arisings;
• Councils with weekly refuse collections and free garden waste collections saw “less impressive” waste declines, both in terms of overall and residual waste, than other local authorities included in the survey.