Mal Williams is the CEO of Cylch – Wales Community Recycling Network. He wrote Cleanstream- Total Resource Recovery Systems for Wales in 1998-1999 as a basis for the Community Recycling Sector's strategy in Wales. He is passionate about the social economy's role in community economic regeneration around re-use and recycling.
Mal Williams
Mal Williams considers the up-and-coming WRAP Kerbside report and asks if local authorities will abandon commingled collection if the evidence goes against them?
In advance of WRAP producing its report on Kerbside collections next week (it is anticipated just after CIWM conference in Torbay) I thought I'd remind readers of the much-criticised RPS report that was commissioned and published by the Welsh Assembly Government last August. This showed kerbside sorted systems to be far more effective and less than one quarter of the cost of other systems.
This report was roundly criticised by the very people that supplied the data on which it was based as being inaccurate. If the WRAP report supports the RPS findings – will that change the way Local authorities and waste companies operate their collection systems? The way that achieves less and costs far more.
The RPS report caused them to bury their heads in the sand. They were reported to be taking the line that “The difference is SO great that the community sector figures cannot be comparable” – so we'll do it our expensive way anyway.
Whilst there are ways in which the report could be criticised, for example the data was 2005/6 – so not very current, there is no doubt that it showed comparability.
The main shock was the wide range of costs 5 years into an investment plan where each Local Authority started from the same, low point. Cylch circulated the RPS report and asked decision makers to ask questions about that disparity – why such a wide range of costs, however measured, in such a small country.
The consultants deliberately included the median figures in each data set/graph to counter the effect of the fact that a few Local Authority sets of figures bordered on ludicrous – itself a serious issue.
The results dispelled many myths about recycling that continue to be purveyed by the waste industry worldwide – you guys will recognize them all wherever you are.
Myth 1 – Recycling is expensive
RPS – NOT SO – The best performing kerbside collections cost much less than waste collection and disposal
(£35 as against at least £100 per tonne typically)
The RPS reported average cost in Wales was over £250 per tonne (7 times the Community Sector's Best Practice) which is way more expensive than waste collection and disposal – so those operations support the myth and that is causing a resistance to change.
Myth 2. Kerbside sort achieves less tonnage
Kerbside sorted systems collect less tonnage than collection of mixed materials with MRF sorting. RPS – Not so – Kerbside sorted materials yielded higher collection tonnage per household and higher gross tonnages of higher quality material with better revenues when sold. Co-mingled (one bin or bag) collections did well to start with but were soon overtaken by the more careful system (and note – the cheaper system) Bryson House figures about their comparable experience in Carrickfergus where they operate both collection systems confirm this to be the case.
Myth 3 Recycling kerbside collection is OK in Urban areas (dense housing) but it won't work in Rural areas where round distances are much longer.
RPS – Not so each type of area shows the same wide range of costs – in each of the three types of area defined in the Wales report – Urban, Rural and “Valleys” (this refers to the Swansea, Rhondda and Rhymney Valleys in Wales – (ex coal and steel/iron industrial communities that are deemed special because of the steepness and narrowness of streets, the density of the housing terraces and the psychology of the population.)
So Cylch's Cleanstream® System – as published in 2000 – is doing very well as predicted it would. Because it is based on educating every householder in the community to put clean materials out for CAREFUL collection at the kerbside where the work done by the householder is honoured and maintained by the collectors as they transfer the material into separate cages or containers on the truck. – SIMPLE.
Over 90% of householders are doing just that and the quality is excellent – the material is merely bulked for transport to the reprocessor back at the depot. The only sorting done there is metals -separating Aluminium from steel with magnets and eddy current separators – and the total depot processing/bulking cost is less than £10 per tonne.
I imagine that these same principles would apply anywhere and are a counter argument to the waste management mantras that SIMPLE means one bin, that people are eager and that we need to solve the “waste problem” with technological solutions.
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