Mid Devon explores weekly recycling collections

A meeting of Mid Devon’s cabinet discussed the proposal on Tuesday (29 November).

In October, Mid Devon switched to a new schedule which sees residual waste collected every three weeks in wheelie bins, recycling collected fortnightly in green and black boxes and food waste collected weekly in blue caddies.

Mid Devon is now considering collecting dry recycling weekly as it looks to increase household waste recycling rates to 60% by 2025 and 65% by 2035, in line with government targets.

Representing an estimated population of more than 80,000, Mid Devon district council had a household waste recycling rate of 53.7% in the 2020/21 financial year.

Mid Devon and Exeter are the only two districts in Devon to collect dry recycling fortnightly rather than weekly, according to the Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee.

According to a report which went before the cabinet meeting, initial modelling suggests a switch to weekly recycling collections would cost £1.4 million and require the council’s waste team to move to a larger site to accommodate extra vehicles and additional volumes.

Project management consultancy WYG Consulting estimates that collecting recycling weekly would decrease residual waste volumes by 4% and increase recycling tonnages by 4.5%, the report shows.

At the meeting, the council agreed to run a three-month trial in the 2023/24 financial year at a cost of approximately £30,000.

Fleet

Moving to weekly collections would require a “far larger fleet”, the report says, suggesting Mid Devon would require six more 12-tonne vehicles and three more 11-tonne vehicles.

“Rounds may become quicker due the increased frequency of collections and residents putting out less on each cycle,” the report reads. “Routes would not change thereby nearly doubling the requirement of fuel for the recycling fleet.”

To staff these extra rounds would require another 24 staff, the report says, and a further member of staff in the depot to assist with unloading the extra vehicles.

CO₂

Mid Devon’s report adds that the “most favourable option” in terms of cutting CO₂ emissions would be to combine weekly dry recycling collections with four-weekly residual waste collections, a proposal the council plans to explore further in the future.

“The capture of additional materials for recycling and diversion of these away from the residual waste stream offsets the impact of the additional fuel use,” the report reads.

This option would increase Mid Devon’s recycling rate by 6%, the report says.

However, it notes that “few” authorities operate four-weekly residual waste collections alongside weekly recycling collections, though it claims some such as South Gloucestershire are considering this regime for the future.