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Northumberland extends glass recycling trial to 2023

Northumberland county council voted last week to extend its kerbside glass collection trial to 31 March 2023 and by 800 households.

Northumberland county council used its existing refuse collection vehicles to collect glass at the kerbside from 1,000 households once a month (picture: Northumberland county council)

However, the council warned it requires more money from the government to roll out the service across the county.

The pilot scheme has run since November 2020, providing a once-monthly collection of glass from around 1,000 houses in the four areas of Morpeth, Bedlington, Hexham, and Alnwick with Lesbury (see letsrecycle.com story). It was due to last for 12 months.

According to a report written by Rob Murfin, Northumberland’s interim executive director of planning and local services, the council collected 281.3 tonnes of glass from the start of the trial to October 2021. The trial incurred revenue costs of £43,000, including labour, fuel, and resident communications, and capital costs of £63,000 for the required 140l bins.

On 27 October, the council’s community and place overview and scrutiny committee also voted to extend the trial to a further 200 households in each area.

Graph shows how much glass Northumberland collected from each of the four areas in the first 12 months of the trial (picture: Northumberland county council)

At the meeting, Cllr John Riddle, Northumberland’s cabinet member for local services, said: “It’s well thought of and well liked by the users. We’ve got to extend it. It would be ludicrous to stop it at the moment, but the reality is that until the government actually pays to do more recycling, we can’t afford to roll it out county-wide. It would be an absolutely massive burden in costs for us to do that.”

New burdens

To minimise the costs involved in running the trial, Northumberland county council used its existing refuse collection vehicles, with a driver and two loaders at each of four selected depots serving the trial areas undertaking one day’s overtime to deliver the collection one Friday per month.

The government has indicated that materials including glass should be collected separately rather than commingled with other dry recycling (picture: Shutterstock)

The council estimates the annual revenue cost of delivering a monthly glass collection service to most households across the whole county at £1.25m per year, with a £4.2m capital cost required for the provision of new vehicles and bins.

Under provisions contained within the Environment Bill, local authorities could be required to provide kerbside recycling collection services for a wide range of materials, including glass, from as early as 2023/24 (see letsrecycle.com story). The government has committed to provide support for councils to meet the new recycling obligations through ‘new burdens’ provisions within local authority funding settlements.

The government has indicated that materials should be collected separately rather than commingled with other dry recycling. While Mr Murfin’s report notes the “environmental benefits” of collecting glass separately, it suggests “the financial costs of delivering this service are high, and far in excess of what the council could afford to deliver without new burdens funding from Government”.

Therefore, Mr Murfin says it is “important” that the council uses the trial to gather further details about recycling performance improvements post-Covid, further “operational efficiencies” that could be achieved, and the CO2 impacts of operating the enhanced service. This, Mr Murfin says, will allow the council to make decisions about the future of kerbside glass recycling that will satisfy the government’s anticipated new funding conditions.

Covid-19

Mr Murfin’s report says that Covid-19 restrictions had a “significant impact” on people’s lifestyles, consumption habits and recycling behaviours, with more people consuming alcohol at home.

As we move out of lockdown and people feel more confident returning to hospitality venues, we will hopefully see glass recycling tonnage at bring and HWRC sites stabilise

– Rob Murfin, Northumberland’s interim executive director of planning and local services

The report states that there had been a 22% increase in the amount of glass collected for recycling at bring sites throughout the pandemic, making it difficult to determine the “precise impact” of the kerbside trial.

While modelling undertaken by the council in 2019 assumed the trial would see 41kg of glass collected per household per year on average, the actual figure has been 71kg.

In the report, Mr Murfin says: “As we move out of lockdown and people feel more confident returning to hospitality venues, we will hopefully see glass recycling tonnage at bring and HWRC sites stabilise, providing a clearer indication of the potential net growth in tonnage collected due to the introduction of the kerbside collection pilot.”

The report says extending the trial to March 2023 is “considered necessary to provide greater confidence in the data used for long term service planning and investment”.

Northumberland

Home to nearly 320,000 people, Northumberland had a recycling rate of 36% in the 2019/20 financial year.

While the council delivers collection services in-house, Suez provides Northumberland’s waste processing and disposal services. The waste management company, then known as SITA UK, was awarded a 28-year contract in 2007, estimated to be worth more than £486m (see letsrecycle.com story).

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