4 Bins here,
Black/Dark gray for general waste.
Blue for Paper & Card
Green for Bottles/Tins & Plastic
Brown for Garden Waste/Fruit & Veg and some other foods.

Works ok except for when the Bin men can't be bothered to actually collect/empty them.

It would depend on which company the local council are using to process the waste. It might be changing and the new contractors have different ways of dealing with it.
Or it could be that the current operators are changing the way they deal with the waste, they may also want to change the output of the composting process to meet demand from the people they supply to. Or it could be a change in regulatory stance from the EA. There has been a lot of composting sites with local odour amenity issues and removing a certain type of waste may stop odours occurring and causing pollution.
Source segregating the waste as you describe could be the result of any of the above. If you contacted your local EA Environment Management team they may be able to tell you, but they might not depending on what kind of work is doing in the area.

The bit about 2 compost bins makes me think is rubbish. And if they already have facilities to separate waste (think its called MRF) they're unlikely to do away with it. That said, kerbside separation is supposedly the most successful means of recycling so maybe they will to meet higher targets.

5.

Alternate weeks -
Brown bins - garden, food waste
and
Glass (little orange box) (every two weeks)
Plastics, Cans (purple slimline bin)
Paper (blue slimline bin
Green (everything else non-recyclable)

apart from fact that I'm sure economics but be finely balanced, it's supposed to be only Cat 1 & 2 plastics (and metals is debatable too) so while we make good efforts to put only the right plastics in, I'm sure others don't, or just can't tell - so the effort must be pretty large anyway.

Has certainly cut down our normal bin use with the uplift in plastics (which is worrying).

It would depend on which company the local council are using to process the waste.

Now, I had assumed that the council did this in-house. Most of the lorries and all the tips have council branding all over them, I don't remember seeing anything else.

I've got 4 bins!

A food caddy for errr, food waste.
Alternating weeks:-
Wk1
Green one for recycling stuff (glass, plastic, metal paper etc)
Brown one for garden waste
Wk2
Grey one for landfill

Not 100% on this but hasn't the Lamby Way landfill and recycling facility just filled up its landfill? Maybe some changes relating to that?

You could always ask the council

It would depend on which company the local council are using to process the waste.
Now, I had assumed that the council did this in-house. Most of the lorries and all the tips have council branding all over them, I don't remember seeing anything else.

Lorries may have council branding on them but the sites they transfer the waste to (not the local civic amenity site "the tip", it would all go to a waste transfer station) would most likely be run by a private company.

We have three large wheelie bins:
Black - for landfill
Green - Compost-able stuff, food, garden waste etc
Blue - All recycling, metal, plastic, paper, card, glass etc

Recyle foil by cuting the top off a drinks can, aluminium and stuffing with the foil, saves it going to landfill.

The value of mixed recylable waste is practically nil, most of the sorting plants (operated by SITA, Viridor etc) run on subisdy by the local authority operators who contract the work to comply with their targets to reduce waste to landfill. They can't make money back from selling the sorted waste to cover the sorting process.

A lot of the sorting plants are standing idle and the waste is being stockpiled or exported.

Sorting at source gives the operators a chance of running a business that the local authority can afford.

A lot of the sorting plants are standing idle and the waste is being stockpiled or exported.

I do wonder how much just gets dumped in Landfill.

The value of mixed recylable waste is practically nil

Because it costs so much sort it out?

the value of mixed recylable waste is practically nil

Because it costs so much sort it out?

Wirra has its own MRF a huge tumble dryer type tube, everyhing is shoveled in and then the plastic, paper and cans removed by magnets, air jets or hand picking, seems to work well by the large amount of bales of stuff left outside, tesco also have recycling bins that take plastics and cans as well as glass and plastic bags.

Possibly cheaper than paying landfill tax, landfill transport and landfill costs and finding a landfill to take all the waste.

Email c2c@cardiff.gov.UK they are pretty good at coming back with info. While you are doing that ask them to sweep the Taff trail too. Its a mulchfest..I saw a squirrel burying nuts in the pile of leaves on the trail by radyr weir this am

I hate the fact that different local authorities have different systems for recycling.

waste management eh?

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Kerbside sorting ie by you is the most efficient way of doing it. As others have mentioned, the cost of sorting it downstream is far higher than picking it up in the discreet waste streams and then processing it.
I lived in South Glos and had 6 bins or so. It took p a bit more room but was no more hassle after a couple of weeks. It helps you see where your waste comes from as well - not that most people care.

Scotland is running a process called the "zero waste policy" aimed at reducing material to landfill to virtually nothing - or Zero as they like to call it. It part of the EU's "Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Waste Framework Directive)" to deliver more sustainable waste management in Europe.
I would think that England and wales will have similar policy's, these are however open to individual interpretation depending on the council in question. They should have a bit on their website about timelines and what their aims are for starters.

We've gone from having a big blue wheelie bin for all recycling to separate boxes for paper/glass and plastic/tins - frankly it's crap. We now recycle less than we did before.

blinkin brussells innit, the revised waste framework dirextve places a duty on local authorities to provide 'separate collections for paper, card, glass and plastic' uk thinks this means a single separate colle tion brussells os insosting on four separate streams. Both systems have merits re recycling rates in differe.t e.voronments bot comingled is significantly cheaper to deliver. Separation systems are now highly ad anced ising ppti al and density properties to remove different materials....or a load of heap immigramts on a pickinline

most waste disposal authorities will have a series of different waste treatment and handling systems, licensed through a particular company, where council wagons will collect the kerbside waste as part of their role and then deliver to a processing plant, so it is not a direct council operation.

separate plastic bottles, card etc.. can just be baled and shipped for processing

co mingle waste will go to MRF or MBT-AD where the waste can be seperated and the organic fraction removed and placed into an AD plant for biogas generation.

composting can go either to green waste systems with traditional wind row systems or mixed food waste and green waste into In Vessel Composting (IVC) systems.

The issue being that is the food to green ratio is wrong the IVC can go rather interesting and start generating methane like a mini landfill, or the resultant product will not be able to classify as a compost due to failing to meet the criteria.

Will ask my wife later, she deals with stuff like this for the Welsh Government.

Scotland is running a process called the "zero waste policy" aimed at reducing material to landfill to virtually nothing - or Zero as they like to call it. It part of the EU's "Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Waste Framework Directive)" to deliver more sustainable waste management in Europe.

from someone in the industry that runs waste business in Scotland and England,that basically involves a lot of sending over the border to English treatment plants and landfills at the moment!

Oh yeah, like tazzy says the stuff that comes out the back of mbt plants is mostly only good for rehabilitating landfill sites, proper compost from green waste can be used and sold as a product

The value of recycled materials fluctuates all the time. At one point China was taking everything we had. We (the UK) took the piss and started sending them all our crap too. Weeks on a boat in a box turned our unsorted waste into a box of gooo. They shut the doors to imports so the market died. Now we're looking for other markets to use.

As for composting, we run a composting site and the number of hoops we've had to jump through. Different wastes have to be treated in different ways and need to hit different temperatures for differenet times. If you collect a smaller amount of waste that contains meat (animal by products) its easier to compost that in a DEFRA approved composter and then windrow the greens and veg.If its all mixed up, you have to compost a bigger tonnage slowing you down.

As for zero to landfill....don't get me started. Its all crap. We may send it over seas as fuel but the residues end up in landfill. We're looking at some new kit that will help us get very close but you need another process to deal with the residues. We already have that so fingers crossed for the new year.

Kerbside collections do make recycling easier though so thats why you have loads of bins.

Sheffield: black wheelie bin for the incinerator/energy from waste plant. Blue wheelie bin and blue box for paper/card or plastics/metal/glass, optional which you choose for your waste. Posh parts of town, I hear, have a green bin for compost.

Glass sorting is being done so well now that mixed colours are no longer a problem. There is even a new preference for leaving caps on glass bottles so the metal can contribute to the payback from the sorting equipment.

Plastic has had massive investment in displacing metal and glass packaging but keeps failing to put up the money needed to be as recyclable. Who can tell their PP from HDPE and all the colours (transparent and opaque) it can be made in? May as well just burn it and harvest the energy.

Skiprat...which company do you work for...chances are youve seen in my professional capacity if its one of the big boys

It makes me laugh, especially the zero waste to landfill part.

Read it with a pinch of salt, however all it means is that one waste company, lets say Veolia have a zero waste to landfill policy for a specific contract. What they do is not take it to landfill, but transport it to a waste transfer station ran by lets say Viridor who shovel up the tipped waste, put it on a belt which takes it to a loading area, load it into their viridor wagons then ship it off to landfill.

Yes to recycling cans, glass bottles, paper, cardboard and garden waste but thats where you need to draw the line. Landfills are great energy producers and without the organic material wont produce as much energy. The bio digesters are all well and good but without subsidy arent cost effective to operate as oppose to a landfill which is unsubsidised, taxed to the hilt and should be able to run at profit if well managed and has the right amount of input.

The problem is that there isnt a market for all of the recycled product so there is a massive amount of illegal dumping of trommel fines as most landfills wont accept it at a lower tax level as its waste and stinks, the recycling holding pens are going up in flames weekly as they run out of storage space due to not having a market for the product, so they torch them and get the insurance money and anerobic digesters have in a lot of cases been built in the wrong places too quickly and stink causing a nuisance.

So many people are massively anti landfill when they in actual fact are not the scurge they are made out to be and produce a lot of power and even provide leachate which is used by water treatment companies to feed the bugs that digest your human waste.

So in short, 3 bins is enough!

from someone in the industry that runs waste business in Scotland and England,that basically involves a lot of sending over the border to English treatment plants and landfills at the moment!

Keep Scotland Beautiful - Let's dump our shite in England!

Better than shipping it off to India I suppose.

Those above insinuating changes are due to the recycling operator, you're wrong, mode of collection is always set by the collection authority as part of the tender, they may ask you to price for an alternative but a change in waste collection policy requires assent from the elected members.

They tend to choose different methods in different areas as different housing densities etc are better served by different methods, they are also influenced by the arrangements made by the waste disposal authority (usuall the county council) who will have historicallyoperated the landfill sites but have usually let them to either profit making subsidiaries of themselves or private companies or a mixture, e.g. cumbria, CWM (former council) ru the landfills, Shanks run the recycling infrastructure

Kerbside sorting ie by you is the most efficient way of doing it.

Is the correct answer:
- It gives you a higher-quality recyclate, which is worth more money.
- No investment required in people or plant to do the separating.
- Making residents segregate their recycling tends to make them produce less waste in the first place, which again cuts costs.

Kerbside sorting ie by you is the most efficient way of doing it.

Is the correct answer:
- It gives you a higher-quality recyclate, which is worth more money.
- No investment required in people or plant to do the separating.
- Making residents segregate their recycling tends to make them produce less waste in the first place, which again cuts costs.

In suburban, comparativley affluent boroughs with stable populations - yes, try it in tower hamlets see how far you get

Landfills are great energy producers and without the organic material wont produce as much energy.

No they're not. Energy recovery is only ever a tiny fraction of the input, plus the heat from turning biogas into electricity is almost always wasted. Landfill never competes on a carbon lifecycle basis with better technologies such as MBT or AD.

In suburban, comparativley affluent boroughs with stable populations - yes, try it in tower hamlets see how far you get

Bristol's done it citywide since the late 1990s.

I don't know bristol but i imagine it's 80% or more houses on streets rather than tower blocks etc and relative to other larger exclusively urban boroughs (london, manchester central, sandwell, birmingham city)would have a more stable population.

Kerbside sort is also significantly more expensive, if you use comingled you can send a tail lift round with a three man crew (driver nad two loaders)that can do roughly a bin every 2 minutes, kerbsiders can have crews of upto six and and will take longer (don't have numbers to hand)due to the manual sort. (vehicles are cheaper, recyclates worth more but you get lower participation (generally speaking) in high density areas). There are also issues around noise exposure on glass collections. That said a council with good comms and infrastructure can make it work very well

Horses for courses. That's why its different everywhere.

I don't know bristol but i imagine it's 80% or more houses on streets rather than tower blocks etc and relative to other larger exclusively urban boroughs (london, manchester central, sandwell, birmingham city)would have a more stable population.

No, there are a significant number of flats - over 14,000 council flats for instance. The council put in mini recycling centres for those, because as you point out kerbside sort isn't suitable. The city council area is exclusively urban.

The sort is done by a three-man crew. Recycling rate is just under 50%.

No, there are a significant number of flats - over 14,000 council flats for instance. The council put in mini recycling centres for those, because as you point out kerbside sort isn't suitable.

to be honest they would be better served by a small scale pyrolysis plant linked to a CHP plant to feed back into the building. there are a few systems suitable already coming onto the market from the healthcare and AT clinical waste sector

blinkin brussells innit

Nope. IIRC the UK as a whole was 6 years off topping out on landfill if the same rates of dumping were maintained. That drove the Landfill Tax and other initiatives including recycling.

they would be better served by a small scale pyrolysis plant linked to a CHP plant to feed back into the building

That's pretty new getting smaller scale efficiency pyrolysis working - and the NIMBY thinking would probably stop it dead, despite that thinking being wrong. Given the smallest effective pyrolysis plant I saw would take 250kg of black bag waste an hour, it would also send out the wrong signals to the rest of the ardently recycling neighbourhoods. It would be interesting to introduce something like that into a recycling-focused region just to see the outcome.

I thought the only reason the collected garden waste was that it was heavy and so was an easy way to meet the EU regs on % waste recycled, which is measured by weight.

After all using great big diesel trucks to collect individual compost heaps and centrally compost them isn't actually green at all - it's completely daft, the greenest thing would be for everyone to locally compost their grass clippings etc in their own garden.

Too tall..im working as an independant consulrant with various international designers of small scale converters and pyrolysis plants that'll process low volume and use combustion gas to fuel the cycle so minumal impact...for use in nusring homes..and as ward disposal systems for health care

. Footflaps..the main thin with large scale compstinging process is that theoretically there is a saleable end product..most of it goes to farmers and local authorities for flower beds etc... the fact that there are a bloomin occupational health and safety nightmare to work in due to massive endotoxin and bioaerosol loading...oh and they smell like sarans arse....working with ivc systems is pretty grim...and ive seen some grim workplaces!

A lot if the diesels are also on recyled oil for fuel. .but yea there is a hell of a lot of greenwash that joe oublic isnt aware off

tazzy - genuine interest in the small scale pyrolysis from me. I'm doing some alt energy consulting for a large multinational and small to medium solutions are always of interest.

If you want a chat about it in a professional manner drop me an email amd I'll give you a call next week and put you in contact with a few companies that could be of interest

After all using great big diesel trucks to collect individual compost heaps and centrally compost them isn't actually green at all

Well.. If the council didn't collect it most people would not compost themselves. Only keen gardeners are going to bother and most people aren't. Plus if you compost centrally you can sell it to garden centres can't you? Once found a plastic clothespeg in a bag of compost bought from B&Q.

Why would this be? Surely if we already have an advanced system why downgrade?

No you have a high tech sorting process but it potentially leads to lower quality material that is harder to market and produces less income while incurring processing cost. Separating the food waste means that you can put it through AD to produce energy from biomass with the associated ROC benefits on top of the energy sales. And the current system doesn't comply with the WAG requirements (and potentially EU legislation depending on the not yet released definition of TEEP), but other than that it's all gravy. What you're getting isn't a downgrade it's just different.

drop me an email

I would if I could but I can't. Or can I just not see it?

thestabiliser - Member
Those above insinuating changes are due to the recycling operator, you're wrong, mode of collection is always set by the collection authority as part of the tender, they may ask you to price for an alternative but a change in waste collection policy requires assent from the elected members.
They tend to choose different methods in different areas as different housing densities etc are better served by different methods, they are also influenced by the arrangements made by the waste disposal authority (usuall the county council) who will have historicallyoperated the landfill sites but have usually let them to either profit making subsidiaries of themselves or private companies or a mixture, e.g. cumbria, CWM (former council) ru the landfills, Shanks run the recycling infrastructure

Not in particular, the majority I've done recently (particularly under CD process) for it to be left open with the specification stating the materials to be collected. Some will define but it's more often politically motivated as opposed to the practical way forward as you lose the potential to test best value in the marketplace.

Sorry tootall tazwadie@hotmail.com

I'm in the US; Pittsburgh suburbs.

When they started recycling, we had 4 small bins to put paper, glass, plastic, and metal in that was picked up every 2 weeks. PITA, IMO! Leaves and yard waste are only collected about 3 times in the fall, and once or twice in the spring. No food waste collection at all. Regular trash is in whatever trash can or bag you provide yourself and collected weekly.

Then they said that we could mix the recycleables, but there was no standard container as they were picked up by hand. Then last year, we had to buy big (up to 90 gallon!) lidded plastic recycle cans with wheels which are emptied by a truck with an automatic arm every 2 weeks. Beforehand, they did a test run in one area, and recycling rates doubled! 😯 The only thing that is a PITA is corrugated cardboard. One bike box can damn near fill the whole can! 😀

Bag humbug being back bottle deposits

Landfills are great energy producers

Landfill sites are being actively 'mined' now. At least trials are being undertaken. You have to remember the ratio of stuff that was landfilled in the UK 15 years ago - still plenty of potential fuel buried down there! Metals at £150 - £800 per ton as well...

What irritates me is the inconsistent approach to plastics. Types 1 and 2 get recycled by our council, but not the others (which includes high volume items like yoghurt pots). The non recycled plastics just go in the bin and presumably to landfill, I've tried asking them at the skip but was told they just ended up in landfill there.

Fundamentally isn't this a complete waste of potential energy, plus all the issues from burying plastic? If there was a local incinerator burning the stuff for power I'd take it there but the enlightened citizens of N Yorkshire would rather live next to a stinking landfill whilst protesting about planned incinerators.

Blands post is absolutely correct.

The other issue that affects recycling in this country full of greedy ****ers is that no one likes to see someone else making any money out of waste. If a new technology comes to market that can exploit a waste stream that currently costs an arm and leg to dispose of then that should be a good thing.

What happens is that the waste generators see a profit being made and therefore think their waste is suddenly "worth something". They stop supply or threaten to and demand huge sums for their newly described "feed stock". This kills the margins and the new technological approach will grind to a halt. Waste generator goes pay to paying landfill fees and grumbles about that too...

You go to places such as Denmark and waste wood for instance is burnt for energy either locally or regionally. The producer gets a fixed price agreed a year in advance, as does the haulage firm as does the user. Everyone makes money, nobody grumbles.

You go to places such as Denmark and waste wood for instance is burnt for energy either locally or regionally. The producer gets a fixed price agreed a year in advance, as does the haulage firm as does the user. Everyone makes money, nobody grumbles.

This happens in the UK too.

Denmark have been streets ahead on waste for decades. Small efficient local incineration that generates district heating is a big plus and they hve cleaner air than the UK.

and they hve cleaner air than the UK.

They also have a much lower population density