A proposal to add mixed plastics and cardboard drinks cartons to kerbside collections in a bid to save £145,000-a-year on landfill disposal costs is set to be discussed by Richmond-upon-Thames council next week (September 6).
The council's cabinet is set to meet on Monday to consider a recommendation made by its member for environment and planning, councillor Virginia Morris, which would see it increase the amount of material it collects through its twin-stream kerbside recycling service.
The inclusion of the new materials would coincide with the council opting to award reprocessing contracts to Newport Paper, for mixed paper and card, and Greenstar Environmental, for mixed plastics. The contract award is also set to be considered at the cabinet meeting.
Proposals to change the service come in the wake of feedback received from residents over the past two years. Council documents presented ahead of the meeting state that residents had specifically and frequently requested plastic containers and cardboard cartons to be collected at the kerbside.
The current twin stream service, which sees fibrous material collected separate to containers, was established in November 2008 with collections being carried out by the council's waste and recycling contractor Veolia Environmental Services.
The two streams are collected in separate vehicles, with time spent sorting materials, storing and bulking at the council's materials recycling facility at Langhorn Drive Depot in Twickenham.
Savings
According to the report being considered ahead of the meeting, the addition of mixed plastics and drinks cartons would cost the council an initial outlay of £145,000. However, this investment is seen as being covered by future annual revenue savings of £145,000 after the initial year and the report claims that the material will be collected at no additional net cost to the council.
Richmond hopes that by the adding the materials it would also be able to increase its overall household waste recycling rate by between 2% and 3%.
Mixed plastic material – such as yoghurt pots and food trays – would be taken by Greenstar Environmental for reprocessing. The firm – which was officially purchased by Biffa earlier this month – was awarded £1.187 million by WRAP to help develop a mixed plastic reprocessing facility at its Redcar-based plastics recycling subsidiary Greenstar WES (see letsrecycle.com story) in February 2010.
Flats
After the initial service change to increase the range of materials collected is completed, then the council will make a bid, in partnership with the West London Waste Authority, to the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) to receive funding to help invest in a trial flats recycling service.
The borough currently has a limited flats recycling service, with 50% of flat dwellers unable to recycle cardboard or plastic. The funding would go towards the development of a trial to “give confidence” in expanding the service to a larger number of estates and flat residents by April 2011.
This is in the wake of the LWaRB launching a £5 million fund in June 2010 to encourage councils to improve the performance of flats recycling across the capital (see letsrecycle.com story).
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