However, the council will not be following its fellow Greater Manchester Waste Authority councils Bury and Rochdale, who have opted to reduce the frequency of residual waste collections from fortnightly to three-weekly in a bid to boost their recycling performance.
Councillors in Tameside have instead opted to reduce the container capacity available to residents for the collection of residual waste from 240 litres to 140 litres. Residents also have a 240 litre brown bin for mixed garden and food waste and a 140 litre blue bin for paper and card. The brown and blue bins will remain unchanged.
The scheme, dubbed ‘Bin Swap’, will see residents switch over their current black wheeled bin for residual waste with the green bin which is used to collect glass, metals and plastic for recycling.
Investment
Councillors have backed the initiative as it will require no capital investment, and there will be no need to alter existing collection routes – which operate on a fortnightly basis for recyclables and residual waste, as well as organic waste.
According to a report approved by councillors at a meeting last week (June 24), action is required to reduce the amount of money that the council is spending to landfill waste, which currently costs it around £288 per tonne through its contract with the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. Tameside recorded a 39.5% recycling rate in 2013/14.
A trial of the scheme in around 4,000 homes in four areas across the borough was undertaken in late 2013, which indicated that the change could lead to a reduction in residual waste tonnages of around 25%.
The report also noted that householders were receptive to the scheme, adding: “The results of the pilot area surveys show that just under seven in 10 households found it easy to adapt to the bin swap. And just over six in 10 now recycle at every opportunity as a result of the bin swap.”
And, on the impact of the scheme on waste disposal, the report notes: “Overall capacity for the disposal of household waste is unchanged. Tracking data shows the amount of waste presented at the kerbside remains the same or slightly up. This means that exactly the same or even more waste is being disposed of by household in house to house collections but the distribution across various bins by separating into recyclates and landfill waste means that there is a significant reduction in cost.”
Alternatives
The council also assessed the viability of purchasing smaller residual waste bins, but noted that the capital cost would be in the region of around £3 million.
A potential switch to a three-weekly collection schedule was also mooted, which would bring Tameside in-line with its Greater Manchester partners Bury and Rochdale. However the suggestion was rejected as it was noted that the move would not provide any additional capacity for recycling and that a move to a three-weekly schedule is likely to be unpopular with householders.
Bury became the first local authority in England to collect residual waste once every three weeks, making the switch in October 2014.
In March the council reported that monitoring the first five months of the system had seen around 2,450 tonnes less residual waste collected than compared to the same period 12 months earlier, with recycling rates having jumped by around 5% for some months.
Councillors in Rochdale approved plans to move to a three-weekly service at a meeting this week (June 29) (see letsrecycle.com story).
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