Richmond-upon-Thames council is preparing to begin a trial change to its flats recycling scheme next week (October 11), with a system that it claims could add 16% to the recycling rate from flats and estates if it was introduced borough-wide.
We now want to see what effect this simplification will have for recycling from flats
Cllr Virginia Morris, Richmond-upon-Thames council
The West London local authority is launching the six-week pilot in Hampton and Richmond, offering 1,500 households a “simplified” system where the several bins they currently separate recyclables into are instead re-labelled as either ‘mixed fibre' or ‘mixed containers'.
This mirrors the approach already used by the borough's homes, where residents receive weekly recycling collections from the council's collection contractor Veolia using a black box for glass, cans, plastic bottles, aerosols and foil and a blue box for paper and cardboard.
As a result of changes approved by the council last month (see letsrecycle.com story), the blue and black box scheme – and the flats trial – will also be used to recycle mixed plastics and cardboard drinks cartons.
Councillor Virginia Morris, Richmond council's cabinet member for environment, explained that the aim of the new flats system was to extend this expanded and simplified system to more properties, as the council aimed to be London's top recycling borough.
“This trial is the next step in our campaign: we announced a month ago that we're adding juice boxes, Tetra Pak items, margarine tubs, yoghurt pots and more to the list of what can be recycled for houses on the blue and black box scheme from 8 November,” she said.
“We now want to see what effect this simplification will have for recycling from flats. Local people in this trial should find it much quicker, and if the test run increases the volume of waste collected, it will be another major step in the right direction,” she added.
Of the new materials being added to collections, Tetra Pak and cardboard will be added to the mixed fibre stream and mixed plastics will be added to the mixed container one.
Funding
Once the flats trial is completed, the council expects to use information on the extra tonnages of material it hopes to collect to inform a bid to the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) for funding to expand the twin-stream system borough-wide.
The LWaRB made a £5 million fund available in June 2010 to improve flats recycling performance across the capital (see letsrecycle.com story).
Currently, the borough's 15,000 individual flats, spread across 700 estates, recycle around 1,100 tonnes of waste a year but, if the trial is extended to the whole borough, the council believes it could increase the properties' recycling rate by 16% to 1,250 tonnes.
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