North East councils take bring bank services in-house

STWWMP is responsible for waste management services for almost 627,000 residents on behalf of Gateshead, South Tyneside, and Sunderland councils.

Previously, all STWWMP local authorities had outsourced their bring site services to an external contractor – Palm Recycling – which won a contract to manage sites on behalf of the three authorities as well as Newcastle and North Tyneside for five years in January 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Following the conclusion of the contract, STWWMP has opted to ‘rationalise’ the bring site service and has moved for an in-house collection model.

Around 138 1,100 litre Taylor Continental containers have been rolled out across the partnership area as part of the new service.

Containers

Materials collected from the sites includes mixed glass, plastic bottles, cans and Tetrapaks.

Cardboard banks have also been introduced to mirror the councils’ kerbside recycling service and prevent any confusion when using bring sites, therefore reducing the levels of contamination in materials collected.

The containers, which are placed in locations including council-owned and supermarket car parks, as well as household waste and recycling centres, can now be collected alongside each council’s domestic recycling collection rounds.

The refreshed bring site service has also seen Gateshead council adopt fill-level monitoring technology, which is provided through netBin, and is intended to reduce unnecessary collections of 51 containers.

Engagement

Councillor Linda Green, chair of the South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership joint executive committee, said: “Maximising council resources and increasing the public’s engagement with recycling are two key priorities. Yet in a climate whereby councils now have to achieve more with less, this is not always straightforward. However, through the support and advice provided by Egbert Taylor Group, we are now able to work towards achieving both, which is huge step forward for the environment, our residents, and each of the three councils in our waste partnership.”

Mark Jenkins, sales director at Egbert Taylor Group, which provided the containers for the authorities, added: “We’re now seeing local authorities across the UK rethink their approach to waste as budgets become smaller and sustainability targets increase.

“By implementing a few simple changes, which South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership has successfully done, local authorities are now able to become more agile, leaner and more sustainable, whilst retaining control over the entire waste collection process.”