Stockton-on-Tees council is to review its kerbside waste collection in a drive to improve the authority’s 26.6% recycling rate.
Included in the review will be an assessment of costs and income with scrutiny of potential costs and losses if the current system is changed.
At a cabinet meeting yesterday (April 21), recommendations put forward by the scrutiny committee, including a review of the current green waste collection service were accepted.
Other recommendations include looking at how to reduce green waste in residual bins and to educate residents in the borough about recycling.
Income
Stockton has a household recycling and green waste rate of 26.6% for 2014/15, failing to reach the national target of 45%. But, councillors were told that residents were happy with the current service.
And, the report suggests that the authority’s recent annual income of £215,010 – at £26 per tonne for dry recyclables – could be jeopardised by a switch to commingled recycling.
Councillors are warned: “Based upon 2014/15 collected recycling tonnages, the cost for Stockton in changing to a co-mingled (single bin) collection process would be £395,820 per year. This does not include the cost of issuing new containers at approx £1.6m, increase in material collected or increase in material rejected for disposal.”
However, changes could be made – the report points out that many similar and neighbouring authorities collect residual waste fortnightly – but Stockton has received funding from the DCLG weekly waste fund.
Recycling
Stockton’s current recycling system consists of a weekly residual waste collection using a 240 litre wheeled bin, a fortnightly dry recycling service using separate bags for paper and plastic and a box for glass and batteries, with a fortnightly green waste service, operating seasonally with reusable sacks.
According to letsrecycle.com league tables, Stockton ranked 322 out of 352 local authorities for its overall recycling rate – referring to the amount of household waste sent for recycling rather than EFW or Landfill.
However, the council say, that its recycling rate could reach 44.9%, if residents put all recyclable materials into the designated recycling container rather than the residual waste bin.
They note in the report that “a large amount of recyclable material is still included in the residual waste stream container, despite up to 30.9% of presented waste for disposal being recyclable.”
This, the council says, affects its overall recycling performance and the hope is that in future, residents will be deterred from using space in their general waste containers for recyclable material.
According to the report by the council’s Place Select Committee, Stockton has achieved a household waste recycling rate of 28-30% over recent years and has ‘one of the lowest rates of use of landfill sites’ at below 1%.
The low landfill rate is explained through the use of household waste being recovered to produce energy the Suez Haverton Hill EFW plant.
Dry recycling material is treated by J&B Recycling Ltd in Hartlepool whilst green waste is processed by A Thompson at Murton Hall Farm in Wingate.
Contamination
Contamination rates in Stockton’s recyclables are 2.8% according to J&B with councillors told that the UK average commingled contamination rate of 30%. The report notes that ‘By sorting at the kerbside – contamination levels are ‘significantly reduced’ and the material ‘achieves the highest yield’.
Matt Tyrie, transport manager at J&B Recycling Ltd said in the report: ‘The material delivered by Stockton borough council is of very high quality – collecting separately is the best way to collect the material’.
The projected Kerbside Recycling Net Cost for Stockton council for 2015/16 is £913,761, an increase from 2014/15 which stood at £858,444 but decrease on 2013/14 is £1,037,648.
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Recycling income warning in Stockton review – letsrecycle.com. 2016. Recycling income warning in Stockton review – letsrecycle.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/recycling-income-warning-in-stockton-review/. [Accessed 22 April 2016].
