The new collection system is delivered by contractor Focsa after it secured a seven-year deal to continue providing waste and recycling collection services in Chester in September 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Previously, residents in the city were provided with kerbside collections of recyclables in sacks. One week, a pink sack containing plastic bottles and cans was collected, while the next a green sack for paper, card and textiles was taken away. There was also a monthly collection service of glass and fortnightly collections of green waste from a 140 litre brown bin. Residual waste was collected in sacks on a weekly basis.
However, under the new system, the council has attempted to make its service simpler with more capacity for recyclables. Now, all dry recyclables are collected in a new, 240 litre blue wheeled bin, which also has an inner caddy for glass and batteries and is collected on a fortnightly basis.
Residents have also been given larger, 240 litre green wheeled bins for green waste, which are also collected fortnightly. Existing brown bins, which were previously used for green waste, have been re-badged to take residual waste, where weekly collections have been retained.
Now, the council has confirmed that recycling rates in the city have effectively doubled – with 55% of all household waste sent for recycling or composting in its first four weeks of operation.
And, a report providing an update to councillors on the progress of the system last month explained that, overall, it was working well after officers overcame problems experienced in the first few weeks of the service relating to issues including mixed collections and residents' confusion over the new provisions.
The document claimed that the “vast majority” of the 100,000 collections which were undertaken every week across the city were successful, explaining that: “Early indications show that the service has generated an extremely high tonnage of good quality recyclate and has greatly reduced landfill tonnages in the first few weeks.”
And, it reported a strong take-up for the new system, claiming: “Exceptionally high participation in the new service has been observed across Chester including areas which traditionally have experienced lower participation.”
Difficulties
However, the report, which summarises the first four weeks of the scheme, identified difficulties in five key areas:
• Vehicle collection rounds and times
• 'Bins not emptied' reports
• Assisted collections
• Collections from narrow lanes
• Bin deliveries
The council reported that a number of mitigating methods had been introduced to overcome these issues.
In the report, it acknowledged that changes to collection procedure which saw separate vehicles collect different waste streams at various points during the day meant there were a high number of missed collection reports during the first week of the service.
However, it explained that this was due to householders “misunderstanding” collection agreements.
The report said that a new automatic message at the waste contact call centre set up to help residents with the new service had led to calls about the problem falling, explaining that: “Call volumes dropped after this information was provided as an automatic message on the contact centre call number.”
Outlining further measures that it had taken to address the issue of 'bin not emptied' (BNE) reports, the council explained that: “Whilst undertaking collections the crews record where bins have not been placed out. This allows collection point and collection day issues to be clarified with residents when they report a BNE.
“We are working with the contractor to ensure persistent issues are highlighted on the collection vehicle ‘round sheets' and are reported back to the depot as they are addressed during each collection round.
“Where issues with collection points are identified, waste officers undertake visits to resolve these with the residents.”
Resolution
The council said that problems with assisted collections were “nearing resolution” and were caused by residents not being listed on the council's assisted lift register. This led to a backlog of retrospective assisted collection registrations and affected the transfer of information to the contractor.
A special narrow lanes collection service has also been introduced, and the report pointed out: “No provision had been made for this round in the original contract developed by the former City Council. This has been a significant cause of missed collection reports.
“The new system comprises a van which collects typically from farms and isolated rural houses which are not accessible to standard collection vehicles. The narrow lanes van cannot empty bins therefore these properties have now been placed on bags,” it added.
Residual
While the delivery of 90,000 bins to householders was completed on time, there were “a number of reports of missed or incorrect deliveries”. However, the report said these problems had been addressed and added that residents who were left without a brown bin for residual waste were allowed to continue using back bags until a bin could be delivered.
The report also claimed a three month-long communications campaign run prior to the new service being rolled out had helped to ensure the service changes were a success.
It stated: “Changing the use for residents existing brown bins was a challenging message to communicate. The extensive 3 month communication campaign undertaken prior to this change has successfully prepared residents for this major change to their service.”
A spokesman for the council said: “The successful introduction of a three bin waste collection service in Chester resulted in the doubling of recycling collected in the first four weeks of operation.
“To achieve this we have been working with our collection partner Focsa and changes have included the redesign and familiarisation of new rounds, the use of an innovative caddy inset and the change of use for an existing waste container,” he added.
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