Reducing the frequency of residual waste collections is a key driver for achieving high recycling rates, according to a joint study carried out by the Universities of Bath and Hull.
In the paper, entitled Explaining the variation in household recycling rates across the UK, researchers from the two universities attempted to ascertain why there were significant and persistent differences in recycling performance across the UK.
Using local authority data from the governments WasteDataFlow database, they assessed how the quality of kerbside provision affects household recycling rates.
And they found that reducing the frequency of residual waste collections – most noticeably through alternate weekly waste collections – had a major impact on improving recycling performance.
The study showed that a council adopting a fortnightly collection for residual waste could expect to see an average increase in its dry recycling rate of 3.8%.
However, the method of residual waste collection using either bins or wheeled bins – was found to be largely unimportant.
The authors added that any savings achieved by councils in adopting alternate weekly collections should be reinvested into the dry recycling service. It claimed that this was particularly important given the tightening of council budgets in the wake of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Weekly
It was also suggested in the study that the findings of the research project could help counter recent political furore surrounding the potential reintroduction of weekly waste collections.
“Based on these results, the question arises as to their policy implications”
The supposed push for a return to weekly waste collections dominated mainstream media in the lead-up to this months Waste Review. However, it was not mentioned by the government in any definitive way when the policy document was published (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, in the report, the authors state: Based on these results, the question arises as to their policy implications. We have briefly discussed the current debate of whether to reverse the trend, emerging amongst local authorities, of reducing the frequency of residual waste collection. Our findings suggest that the answer to this is a resounding no.
Assessing residual waste collection frequency on a regional level, the research project showed that councils in the south of England were more likely to benefit from increased recycling rates if the frequency of their residual waste collections was reduced.
Furthermore, while the residual waste collection method was found to have little bearing on performance, the research project showed that the use of a 120 litre wheeled bin for dry recycling generated the greatest yield of material over other types of container.
Impact
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Dr Lucy OShea, principal investigator at the University of Bath, said: When we set out to carry out this research were not looking at the frequency of collections but were trying to explain the variation in recycling rates across the UK.
Although councils have very different targets we wanted to know if the differences at a local level could be explained. We focused on the kerbside as it seemed to be very important.
The research was carried out by Dr OShea, Professor Shasikanta Nandeibam from the University of Baths Department of Economics and Professor Andrew Abbott from the University of Hull. It was funded by a grant from the Economic & Social Research Council.
Researchers now plan to look at different categories of recycling, such as glass and paper, and to examine the warm glow effect that recycling gives householders, and its place in the on-going political debate on household waste charges.
The research project will be published in full in a forthcoming edition of the Ecological Economics journal.
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