Ashford Recycling Rate Skyrockets Following Revised Kerbside Collections

Ashford Borough Council, dubbed the worst council in England when it comes to recycling, has quadrupled its recycling rate following the first year of an extensively-revised recycling and refuse collection service. Implemented in collaboration with waste and recycling firm, Biffa, provisional data for the 12 months since the new service was introduced shows that Ashford achieved an average recycling, reuse and composting rate of almost 55%. In Defra’s 2012-13 recycling league table, Ashford was placed last of 353 English local authorities with a recycling rate of 11.88%. According to Biffa, this performance would have put the Kent borough in 33rd place in Defra’s 2012-13 league table, a climb of over 300 places. The company explained that in the first year of Ashford’s new service, it collected 20,508 tonnes of recyclable materials, comprising 11,909 tonnes of dry mixed recyclables, 3917 tonnes of garden waste, and 5127 tonnes of waste food. Nearly 17,635 tonnes of residual waste was collected in the same period. After factoring in small amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment, waste fridges and freezers, and fly tips, as well as 380 tonnes of materials rejected by the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) that processes the district’s recycling, Ashford’s rate was calculated to be 54.89%. Biffa added that the borough’s best month was in June this year, with a recycling rate of 60.07%, just 1% better than the rate achieved (59.05%) in August 2013, the very first full month of the new service. To achieve the improved collection, Biffa’s implemented Ashford’s first alternate week collections of a wide range of commingled dry recyclables, and of residual waste, from separate wheeled bins. These replaced weekly collections of refuse in sacks and of a limited range of dry recyclables in kerbside boxes, and were supported by weekly collections of food waste in kitchen caddies, as well as an optional subscription-based garden waste collection service. Ashford’s major service change was the first element of Biffa’s £86 million, ten year contract with the Mid Kent Joint Waste Partnership comprising Ashford, Maidstone and Swale Borough Councils. “This is extremely encouraging news,” commented Councillor Jessamy Blanford, Ashford Borough Council’s portfolio holder for waste and recycling. “We have been delighted with how enthusiastic our residents have been about recycling since the new service and wheeled bins were introduced,” she continued. “To see figures continuing to climb after the initial excitement has died down is wonderful news for our borough.” Blanford added that the current figures are helped by the amount of seasonal garden recycling being collected in the summer months, but that in itself is good news as many people taking up this optional service. “The latest figures also indicated that people are getting more comfortable with recycling, as the amount of non-recyclable material rejected at the recycling plant has also dropped, meaning fewer people are putting the wrong items into their green bins,” she concluded. Biffa Municipal managing director Roger Edwards added that Defra’s recycling table for the 2013-14 year, published next month, will not mirror these Ashford statistics. The Defra statistics cover April 2013 to March 2014, and therefore will include three months of Ashford’s old service and its lower recycling performance. Read More Israeli Hazardous Waste Plasma Treatment Technology Comes to UK Cheshire UK based Simdean Envirotec, a manufacturer of technical solutions for difficult odour control and waste elimination problems, is to launch an Israeli developed plasma-based chemical waste elimination system into the UK. Food Waste Recycling Deal for 45,000 TPA Biogen AD Facility in Warwickshire Leicestershire County Council has agreed a five year contract to supply food waste from source separated kerbside collections to Biogen’s 45,000 tonne per year anaerobic digestion facility in Warwickshire. ISWA Blog: Spanish Waste Management and the ‘Molecule of the Future’ Spain is a highly developed country but still lags behind the EU targets – especially it lags behind in source separated collection and composting.