Title

My local authority operates what is called ‘co-mingling', which sounds vaguely salacious, but simply means glass, paper, plastics and cans are all collected in the same bag to be processed for recycling. Co-mingling had a bad press some months ago when a Sunday newspaper alleged it was impossible to recycle different materials from the same bag, and claimed some councils were simply exporting it all to China for landfill. The simple answer to this allegation was to contact my own council, Hillingdon LBC in west London, and visit the centre, where the recyclables are sent, to rapidly disprove the claim. Despite being in one bag, all the materials are sorted before being dispatched for recycling, often across the world. And China is, indeed, a purchaser of UK recyclables, but for reuse not landfill. About one-third of London boroughs use co-mingling as opposed to source separation, in which the onus is on the householder to sort the various materials into the right containers at the kerbside. But, as Hillingdon's waste development manager, Duncan Jones, argues: ‘Source separation is an inefficient use of refuse trucks'. With co-mingling, the same refuse lorries can be used to carry bags for recycling bags or landfill. There are also savings in labour costs, not to mention less aggravation for householders. Hillingdon's population is 252,000, with 102,000 households. Its overall recycling rate for 2007/8 is set to be 30%, up from 7.6% nine years ago, and the council is one of the top five best at recycling in London, with a target of 40% by 2010. Its 120-strong refuse collection team comprises 27 crews and 27 standard dustcarts, of which 99% are leased, and an average five-man crew can cover 2,500 households in a shift. There are no wheelie-bins, and collection is weekly, with no current plans to go fortnightly. The annual budget for the waste division is £14.4m, of which half is for disposal. Hillingdon's clear recycling sacks take plastics, steel and aluminium cans, glass, paper and cardboard, but not foil, crisp bags, plastic bags, plastic bottle tops, shredded paper, Tetra packs, polystyrene or yoghurt pots. A separate collection is for garden waste. The council collects just two different types of bags – clear for recyclables and black for landfill. Currently, landfill is sent to the Home Counties, and the recycling bags are sent to a nearby waste-reduction centre, owned by Grundon, one of the UK's biggest sorters of recyclables. The plant processes commercial waste – such as that from Heathrow and Gatwick airports – as well as domestic rubbish from some 15 councils. Hillingdon sends all its recycling to Grundon, paying a fixed rate on a 10-year contract, the payment amounting to less than the cost of landfilling it. The company, in turn, sorts the recyclables into bales of paper, card, cans or plastic, and and sells them on to be recycled by companies such as Aylesford Newsprint, with Grundon bearing the risk of a volatile recycling market – as rates change daily – rather than the council. As Mr Jones says: ‘Grundon is a buffer between us and the marketplace.' Grundon development director, Neil Grundon, says the two biggest recent influences on the market for recycled goods have been the landfill tax and the growth in China's economy, which has pushed up demand for steel. He believes the landfill tax will treble in the next three years, therefore creating an even greater incentive for councils to send their rubbish for recycling. And as for China, the country is actually a market for recyclable material from the UK, the irony, of course, being that it was probably imported from China in the first place, in the form of manufactured goods. Adds Mr Grundon: ‘The Chinese are big on recycling. We're selling this to them so why on earth would they then landfill it?' Three shifts of workers from 7am to 2am sort the recyclables, aided by a variety of Heath Robinson-style machines, such as the German Trommel – literally ‘drum' – and magnets which lift cans. Sorted into their respective bales, the paper is destined for paper mills in the UK and western Europe, aluminium is sent to UK recycling firms, and plastics to Europe and the Far East. Glass goes to firms which turn it into sand. The price of recyclable plastic follows the price of oil, which means, currently, it is going up, while paper is affected by the season of the year and the price of pulp and forestry. Events such as the World Cup (beer cans), Halloween (pumpkins) or Christmas (paper) also create seasonal gluts of certain recyclables. The only irony is that the recycling bags themselves are not recyclable! I enjoyed my visit and obviously, I am not alone. Grundon is now planning a visitor centre for local residents and schoolchildren.

Title

CLIMATE CHANGE

What happens to my recyclables?

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING