Recoup survey points to need for more public collection attention

United Kingdom-based Recoup has carried out a survey of waste and recycling authorities in the U.K. with the aim of gaining an insight into the service provision and collection “on the go,” or in public spaces.

The group indicates nearly 100 local authorities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland responded to the survey and a “consistent picture soon became apparent that ‘on the go’ disposal in the U.K. was failing.”

There is inadequate on-the-go collection infrastructure for collection of recyclable and residual waste material, the group indicates. Among the barriers cited by survey respondents toward developing a recycling on the go infrastructure were:

• high levels of contamination;
• inadequate budgets for consumer communications and education; and
• difficulty covering procurement, maintenance and collection costs.

For many local authorities, there are significant costs in providing on the go collection services and high levels of contamination from the material collected, and many of them reported their budgets can be better spent on increasing quantities and reducing contamination in curbside collections.

According to Recoup, “It was made clear investment is needed to prove the business case for on the go collection schemes. To do this effectively it was reported good data is needed to assess costs and potential benefits, with funding needed for procurement and installation of bins, scheme maintenance and collection of material, and also for consumer communication and education to promote effective use of the schemes.”

“We are increasingly seeing the priority placed to ‘On the Go’ services to reduce litter and also provide services for the public to recycle away from home,” says RECOUP Technical Manager Steve Morgan. “This survey shows the scale of the challenges that Local Authorities are facing to provide effective collection services.”

Adds Steve Brunt, joint assistant director of Streetscene at Bolsover & North East Derbyshire District Councils, “We found that the operational difficulties outweigh any potential benefits to ‘On the Go’ collections we would have gained through contribution to our combined recycling rate. The cost versus benefit needs to be proven. We have concentrated on increasing performance curbside dry recycling and organic waste collections.”

Recoup (RECycling of Used Plastics Ltd.) describes itself as a charity and member-based not-for-profit organization that works to promote plastics recycling. The Recoup “On the Go Survey” report is available to be downloaded from the Recoup website.