London Borough of Bexley

Transcription

1 Case study 3: food waste collection from SMEs & schools London Borough of Bexley The London Borough of Bexley is a unitary authority located within the south east of Greater London. The borough provides a weekly organics collection to between 80 and 90 SMEs and 80 schools, collected as part of the household organics collection service.

2 London Borough of Bexley Key facts Customers Service provider 80 to 90 SMEs and 80 schools Started with in-house service now contracted out to Serco. Tonnes per year 258 tonnes from SMEs & approximately 260 tonnes from schools. Date service began operation Collection method & frequency Charge Collection Crew/round sizes Containment Transfer & bulking Treatment Service scope SMEs January 2007 Schools November 2005 Bexley collects food waste (including food contaminated card) mixed with garden waste from households on a weekly basis. Food waste from SMEs and schools is collected on the household rounds. Bexley charges SMEs by container size. Charges are quoted for one year s service. 140l wheeled bin: l wheeled bin: l wheeled bin: tonne GVW Rotopress Refuse Compaction Vehicle (RCV) Driver plus 1 3, cover 600 miles per month 140l, 240l and 1100l wheeled bins, 50l caddies and 60l starch liners. Up to 2 tips per day at Thames Road waste transfer station approximately 14 minutes / 4 miles from the centre of Bexley. In-vessel composting (IVC) facility at Stanton near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Owned and operated by County Mulch. Residual waste and dry recycling services also available. Motivation Bexley s primary motivation for introducing the food waste collection service to SMEs and schools was to offer a

3 comprehensive recycling service to all sections of the local community. Costs were also a motivation. Considerable savings can be made by the diversion of compostable waste from the residual waste stream. With food waste treatment now costing less than residual waste disposal an avoided disposal saving of per tonne is available to Bexley. To a lesser extent LATS and recycling rates are also motivating factors although, as Bexley is London s best performing borough (with a combined recycling and composting rate of >50%), these are not currently urgent issues. For SMEs the motivating factor to use the food waste collection service primarily is financial. Innovation Containment The initial WRAP Trial, which was run from January 2007 to March 2008, found that dense food waste, such as that from restaurants, was too heavy for the 240l wheeled bins. The front lips of full bins were being damaged when lifted. Consequently, three bin sizes are now available. Producers of dense material are supplied with 140l bins, while producers of less dense material, such as greengrocers and florists, are supplied with either 240l or 1100l bins. As a result, a greater range of SMEs has been recruited to the service, including restaurants, pubs, florists and greengrocers. Vehicles The service is undertaken using Rotopress vehicles. These have proved to be more cost effective than standard compacting vehicles due to lower maintenance costs.

4 In addition, the rotating action of the drum body ensures that food waste, garden waste and food contaminated card materials are mixed and aerated prior to delivery at the transfer station. The aeration process reduces odours and liquid residues arising both during collection and while the material is being stored at the transfer station. Charging Schools are currently not charged for waste collection services, however they do have to buy their residual waste containers. SMEs are charged per container with all charges being the same for all customers regardless of circumstances. Charges are less per container than the residual waste collection charge for the same sized container. The annual charge, paid over four quarters in advance, is popular with SMEs as it is transparent and straightforward, i.e. there are no hidden surprises. The charge covers the third party contractor charges made to Bexley for collection, plus costs incurred by Bexley for transport, treatment, containers, administration and contribution to overheads. All costs arising from SME collections are covered. Increasingly, the service is being offered as a package to businesses and schools. The charging structure for businesses is weighted to incentivise uptake of the recycling and organics collection services alongside residual waste collection, i.e. it is more cost effective for businesses to take on the full package as the equivalent sized container costs less for the recycling and organics waste collection services respectively than it does for the residual waste collection service, in addition the collection of organic waste enables the residual waste frequency to be reduced to once per fortnight further reducing the cost. Table I3, Table I4 and Table I5 show the charges made to businesses by Bexley in the year 2009/10. Table I3: Annual Dry Recycling Charges 2009/10 Material Container size Fortnightly collection Weekly collection Paper and Cardboard Wheeled Eurobin

5 Paper and Cardboard 240l Wheeled Bin Glass Bottles and Jars Wheeled Eurobin Glass Bottles and Jars 240l Wheeled Bin Plastic Bottles and Metal Cans Wheeled Eurobin Plastic Bottles and Metal Cans 240l Wheeled Bin Table I4: Annual Compostable Waste Charges 2009/10 Container size Weekly collection 140l wheeled bin l wheeled bin l wheeled bin Table I5: Annual Residual Waste Charges 2009/10 Container size Weekly collection Wheeled Eurobin (exc rental) Additional Eurobin on same day (exc rental) l wheeled bin l wheeled bin Dustbin or two sacks Eurobin rental Issues arising & problems solved Garden waste The inclusion of garden waste produces seasonal variations in the volumes of material collected. This results in two tips per day being necessary at times of peak garden waste capture. Conversely, at times of lower garden waste capture, vehicles only need to be tipped once per day and crews finish much earlier. Bexley operate 11 vehicles with a driver plus two loaders during the summer, whilst in the winter, when material capture is less,

6 Bexley operates nine vehicles each with a crew of a driver and two loaders. Officer resources During the WRAP funded trial, one full-time project officer was recruited in partnership with London Remade. They carried out SME recruitment, developed a sales pack, and conducted direct marketing, telesales and face-to-face visits. Seventy-five SMEs were recruited to the service and approximately 25 tonnes of material was diverted from landfill during the trial period. Since the trial ended in March 2008, Bexley has had limited staff resources available to devote to the recruitment and support of SMEs. This resulted in a marginal increase in SMEs from 75 to between 80 and 90 at the end of November However, with the award of the collection contract to a third party contractor (November 2009), two full-time Commercial Waste Officers have taken on the responsibility for sales and ongoing support of the organics collection service as part of their wider role. To date (March 2010) this has resulted in an increase in customers of between 5 and 10 SMEs, with Bexley anticipating that, with further officer training, recruitment of SMEs to the service will increase. Contamination Although Bexley has found very few problems with contamination from SMEs or primary schools, secondary schools experienced problems where food waste bins located in canteens were used directly by the pupils for their plate scrapings. Contrary items included cutlery, plastic cups, plates and food packaging. This problem has been solved by restricting the location of containers to the kitchens and removing them from the canteen area; although this has also resulted in lower material capture. Bexley report that their policy of continuous monitoring of the quality of material collected has resulted in no complaints of contamination from the reprocessor.

7 Lessons Learned Food waste collection systems within schools and SMEs are to some extent bespoke and, as such, require site visits to ascertain the logistics involved and to ensure buy-in from all involved parties. Logistics in schools can be slightly more complex due to them being further away from the road and often involve security procedures to gain access to the site. Future Plans Bexley s commercial food waste collection is currently in a state of transition between two contracts. The intention is to develop the educational resources, in part to address the contamination and participation issues arising from secondary schools.

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