In Cardiff we have a great recycling system. One green bag for everything recyclable (except aluminium foil, oddly) and one for all food including meat and bones. It’s great and convenient. Presumably then the recycling plant can separate all the different things (no idea how) and the composter is super charged with organisms to compost everything, and it keeps out the pests. Oh and there is also one for garden waste.

However my wife overheard someone saying that next year we would have to start separating recyclables ourselves, and also have two compost bins for cooked and uncooked food waste.

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

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?

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.