Collecting recycling from flats: help at hand for the first time
As part of its activity during Recycle Week, WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) today launches new guidance to help local authorities select the most appropriate recycling collection for flats. This is the first comprehensive guide of its kind and covers all aspects of collecting recycling and food waste from flats.
The guidance will help local authority officers to launch, manage and improve recycling and food waste collection systems from flats. This is a vital consideration for officers as, from December 2010, the Household Waste and Recycling Act 2003 will require all local authorities to collect at least two materials for recycling, from all households including flats.
WRAP has worked closely with local authorities to develop the guidance, and to make sure it is relevant. Selected local authorities have road-tested it, including Preston City Council. Debbie Derbyshire, Recycling/Waste Management Officer at the council said: “WRAP’s guidance will enable recycling officers to make sustainable improvements in collection rates from flats. It is also very useful to be able to learn from other local authorities who have already implemented successful systems.”
Rachael Riding, Recycling Officer at Hackney Council, said: “The guidance on recycling collections for flats has a mass of information for recycling officers. The information is relevant and comprehensive, and gives a lot of practical advice on how to make a recycling collection from flats work.”
Flats have proved to be a major problem for recycling collections. The guidance highlights the complexities involved and offers advice on how to overcome them. For example, one major hurdle can be the large number of different groups to consider, i.e. residents, managing agents, housing associations, caretakers. The guidance stresses the need to build relationships with all of these stakeholders and involve them in the process.
Examples of successful systems are also featured in the guidance. Barnet Council, for example, increased the monthly average tonnage of recycling collected by four per cent, and the number of committed recyclers by six per cent.
Phillip Ward, WRAP’s Director of Local Government Services, said: “The key is to recognise the different circumstances in different types of flat and devise systems which are appropriate. This guidance helps recycling officers to identify the issues and the approaches which other authorities have used to respond to them. Together with some of WRAP’s other guidance on, for example Low Performing Areas, it will help recycling officers to create an effective service which will achieve buy in from residents and others that have a key role to play in the process.”
The guidance can be found at www.wrap.org.uk/flats. For more information please email lgs@wrap.org.uk.
Editor's notes
1 WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
2 Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. WRAP also receives funding from Advantage West Midlands.
3 Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business and Markets, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
4 More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk.
