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6 City of Edinburgh Council

6.1 Details of pilot scheme

6.1.1 Pilot scheme area

The pilot scheme area comprised of 3274 households and was situated in the Dalry and Gorgie areas in the west of the City. The area is made of traditional sandstone tenement buildings and is typical of the housing stock in Edinburgh. There are also some new-build flats and two-storey town houses.

Annex 4 provides a breakdown of the ACORN classification for the pilot area. The majority of the area (81%) is made-up of what is classed as "young educated workers, flats" (Type 17).

6.1.2 Pre-Pilot residual waste and recyclables collection

The residual waste collection system before implementation of the pilot scheme can be summarised as follows.

Prior to implementation of the pilot scheme, recycling provision for the pilot area was via local recycling points. Amongst the respondents to the SWAG pre-pilot survey the most commonly used recycling point was the Somerfield supermarket on Dalry Road. The following materials are collected at the recycling points: Paper; Plastic; Textiles; Glass; and Steel and Aluminium Cans.

6.1.3 Pilot scheme

The main objective of the scheme is to pilot the provision of on-street recyclate collection for tenement properties with limited or no access to the rear of the property. A small-scale trial (~1000 households) of this collection system had already been undertaken in the Gorgie area of the City.

Recyclate was be collected via two 1280 litre Taylor bins; one for paper; and one for cardboard, drinks cartons (tetrapacks), steel and aluminium cans, and plastic bottles (referred to as the packaging bin). The two bins were always situated together. A total of 32 sets of bins were distributed throughout the pilot scheme area (64 bins altogether).

There is a great pressure for on-street parking in these areas and the Council were concerned about objections from local residents regarding the loss of parking spaces. To minimise the loss of parking space as a result of the introduction of the new recyclate bins the Council made changes to the waste collection system. The existing 1280 litre Taylor residual bins were replaced with 3200 litre side loading OMB bins. Whilst providing the same residual waste capacity the OMB bins have approximately half the footprint area of the Taylor bins, therefore freeing up space for the recyclate bins.

On-street recyclate collection was chosen for the pilot as there is limited, or no provision, for vehicle or operative access to the rear of tenement buildings. The on-street bin facility allowed for unrestricted vehicular access and flexibility in the collection frequencies. The residual collection system remained unchanged.

The pilot scheme infrastructure can be summarised as follows.

6.2 Pilot scheme evaluation

6.2.1 Tonnage of material recovered

The pilot scheme commenced operation on 27th July 2005. For the period up to 26th December, data received from the Council shows a total of 97.76 tonnes of recyclate material was collected. This is equivalent to a diversion rate 1.36kg/hh/week of recyclate.

A full data set is provided in Annex 7.

Results from waste analysis are discussed separately in Section 11.

Figure 6-1 Photograph of City of Edinburgh Council's pilot scheme

6.2.2 Results of SWAG public opinion surveys

In Edinburgh a household recycling scheme had already been introduced into about third of the households in the pilot scheme area. The pilot scheme extended this service - pre-pilot and mid-pilot refer to before and after the service was extended. In Edinburgh, 357 people responded to the pre- and mid-pilot surveys.

Figure 6-2 and Figure 6-3 summarise the key results for the SWAG public opinion surveys. Before the pilot, 63% of respondents stated they had no household recycling scheme. With the pilot in place, 68% reported they knew about it and used it, 18% knew about it but did not use it, and 14% reported they did not have, or did not know about, the pilot recycling scheme.

Figure 6-2 Use of household recycling scheme: pre- and mid-pilot.

Figure 6-3: Use of recycling points: pre- and mid-pilot

The reported use of recycling points reduced from 45% to 28%, and the reported use of recycling centres dropped from 7% to 3%. Table 6-1 shows the main materials recycled at recycling points pre- and mid-pilot. The use of recycling points for newspaper and cans dropped significantly, both of which where collected by the pilot scheme. City of Edinburgh Council reports that after scheme implementation the amount of recyclate collected at their recycling points in the pilot scheme area actually increased.

Table 6-1 Most common materials recycled at recycling points pre- and mid-pilot

Of those using recycling points after introduction of pilot scheme, 86% said they used it for glass bottles, 36% for glass jars, 12% for textiles and 7% for newspapers. Table 6-2 shows the most common reasons given for not using the pilot scheme.

Table 6-2 Most common reasons for not using the pilot scheme service

¹ Percentage of those respondents who stated they had multi-occupancy recycling service but did not use it.

Amongst those who used the service, 88% were satisfied with it. The most common suggestions for improvement were: no suggestions for improvement (42%); collect more materials (30%); alternative container type (8%); and collect more often (8%)

Figure 6-4 shows the main materials recycled using the pilot scheme.

Figure 6-4 Materials recycled ( SWAG survey results)

6.2.3 Operational feedback

The following points were highlighted by City of Edinburgh Council operational and waste management staff.

• The pilot is an 'opt in' scheme, householders have to make a conscious effort to recycle.
• The on-street bin facility allowed for unrestricted vehicular access and flexibility in the collection frequencies, ensuring maintenance of the recycling facilities at all times.
• On initial introduction of the scheme, uplifts were undertaken at a frequency of three per week and reduced to the planned two per week within the first month.
• The use of 1280 litre recyclate bins was preferred as they can be mounted on the kerbside where conditions allow, thus further reducing the impact on parking space. OMB bins are side loading and cannot be sited on the kerbside even where conditions allow. Note that 1280 litre bins utilised for residual waste are normally sited on street as their increased weight when full limits manual handling on the kerbside.
• The pilot scheme was considered both flexible and effective by CEC operational staff.
• The marked difference in appearance of the OMB and Taylor bins was thought to reinforce the message of their different functions.
• Letterbox flaps and lockable lids were considered effective for limiting contamination, keeping out rain, and visual inspection prior to collection.
• OMB capacity and unlocked lift up lids allow the more bulky elements of domestic waste to be disposed of in the general waste stream.
• Litter or spillage was not found to be a particular issue with on street bins however, large pieces of cardboard were occasionally placed beside the bins for collection.
• It was noted that for rollout of the scheme careful consideration must be given to the location of bins relative to household access and layout (e.g. not directly in front of windows).
• Recyclate quality was considered to be consistently of a high standard. Collection of contaminated loads could be avoided by visual inspection prior to lifting. There was limited contamination of recyclate.

6.2.4 Summary of scheme performance

* Percentage of those using the scheme. Based on public opinion surveys, see also results from detailed waste analysis (Section 11)

6.3 Cost effectiveness analysis

City of Edinburgh Council based their costs of rolling out the scheme on the operational parameters shown below.

Based on the methodology detailed in Section 3.5 the diversion rate for pilot scheme rollout is estimated to be 72 kg/hh/yr. Therefore, the total amount of material recovered would be 4,320 tonnes/annum. Rollout costs have been agreed with City of Edinburgh Council and are shown in Table 4-3. . Full details of costs can be found in Annex 8 - Pilot Scheme Cost Data - and Annex 9 - Rollout Cost Data.

Table 6-3 Pilot scheme rollout costs - City of Edinburgh

If the CAPEX costs of purchasing OMB bins for the residual waste collection system are included the total cost per tonne increases to £190. This cost assumes that:

a) the Taylor bins released from the residual collection system will be either utilised for the recyclate collection (at a refurbishment cost of £155 per bin) or utilised elsewhere by the Council; and
b) the OPEX costs for OMB collection is the same as for the Taylor bin collection.

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