Speaking at the National Civic Amenity Site conference at JCB Headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire on Wednesday (15 June), Daniel Gillert, area operations manager at FCC Environment, said that CA site operators need to ‘be tough’ on the disposal of residual waste at sites.
Mr Gillert, who has operational responsibility for a network of 18 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) across the East Midlands, Staffordshire and Warwickshire said that in his view members of the pubic want to spend as little time as possible on sites when disposing of materials.
He added that the key to achieving a high recycling rate at sites is facilitating a high level of education of customers by staff operatives, and ‘removing the opportunity for residual waste disposal, rather than creating an opportunity for residual waste separation’.
Mr Gillert suggested that local authorities could provide a single HWRC for residual waste within each waste disposal authority boundary, while all others cater purely for recycling and reuse as an incentive to encourage recycling and limit residual disposal.
However, he warned that contract cost is ultimately a factor and that local authorities could expect some level of compromise if cost reductions at sites impact staffing levels.
Site efficiency
On the subject of site efficiency, Gordon Fergus on behalf of Veolia outlined the company’s work to improve operations at Southend’s HWRCs since taking over the operation of the sites eight months ago (see letsrecycle.com story).
In particular he said that work to redesign the layout of the Stock Road HWRC site had helped to improve the throughput of traffic and the usability for residents, without needing significant capital investment.
This included reconfiguring the site to create a ‘mirror image’ layout, which allows continued use when the site is busy and when containers are being serviced. Work was also carried out to improve signage around the site to ensure that they were easily visible to users at a distance.
He said: “We did an assessment of the site and found the space wasn’t being maximised. What we do is shut off certain sections of the sites at quite times to allow staff to focus their work in a smaller area. We can open the whole site up at peak times.
“We want to move towards a system where the public are able to self-serve. This means the site can work more efficiently and our staff clan play their key role in assisting people and maximising recycling.”
Country-wide performance
The conference also heard from Sam Reeve, chief executive of consultancy Resource Futures who compared recycling rates across the UK based on performance at HWRCs.
According to data presented by Mr Reeve, Wales is the leading UK nation in terms of recycling at HWRCs.
Mr Reeve said: “England’s recycling rates recorded a slight improvement in the year 2014-2015 after two years of falls.
“Wales is the leading recycling nation as they have a joined up approach between central and local government as well as the private and third sector.”
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