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9 South Lanarkshire Council

9.1 Details of pilot scheme

9.1.1 Pilot scheme area

The pilot scheme had already been operational for 12 months prior to commencement of the research project. The multi-occupancy properties in the scheme are situated in areas to the north and south of the centre of East Kilbride. Each area contains a mix of property types; multi occupancy properties and houses. The multi occupancy properties are typically post 1960's 4 - 12 in a block. They will typically have bin stores in backcourts that are accessible to collection crews without having to pass through the ground floor of the blocks.

In terms of social demographics the area has a more diverse population than other pilot scheme areas, with most households coming under ACORN Categories 2,4 or 5. The most prominent ACORN Types are numbers 22 "low income singles, small rented flats" and 43 "older people, rented terraces". Annex 4 provides a full breakdown of the ACORN classification for the pilot area.

9.1.2 Residual waste and recyclate collection systems

Residual waste is collected on an alternating weekly basis with the recyclate. Residual and recyclate bins are located in bin stores at the rear of the property. Both collection systems are summarised below.

* Arrangements vary. For example, in some cases 140 litre waste bins are utilised or householders share recyclate bins.

The collected material was transported to Viridor's EnviroScot MRF at Bargeddie.

Figure 9-1 South Lanarkshire backcourt recycling

The Council stress that no 'one-size-fits-all' solution was implemented and arrangements were made with each property regarding the size/number of bins required.

9.2 Pilot scheme evaluation

9.2.1 Tonnage of material recovered

For operational reasons, no tonnage data was available for the scheme for its first 12 months of operation. The Multi-Occupancy Project allowed the lease of a dedicated vehicle and therefore tonnage data is available for the period week beginning 2nd August until 19th December. A total of 104.98 tonnes of recyclate was collected during this period. This is equivalent to a diversion rate of 1.90 kg/hh/week.

Results from waste analysis are discussed separately in Section 11.

9.2.2 Results of SWAG public opinion surveys

In South Lanarkshire a household recycling scheme was already in place. Therefore, 'pre-pilot' refers to the period before the SWAG campaign was undertaken. A total of 334 people responded to both the pre-pilot and mid-pilot surveys. Figure 9-2 & Figure 9-3 summarise the key results for these SWAG public opinion surveys. Before the pilot, 86% of respondents stated they had used a household recycling scheme, 8% knew about it but did not use it, and 6% reported they did not have, or did not know about a household recycling scheme. After the awareness campaign, 90% reported they knew about it and used it, 7% knew about it but did not use it, and 3% reported they did not have, or did not know about, the pilot recycling scheme.

Figure 9-2 Use of household recycling scheme: pre- and mid-pilot.

Figure 9-3: Use of recycling points: pre- and mid-pilot

The reported use of recycling points decreased from 38% to 24%, the reported use of recycling centres decreased from 27% to 19%. Table 9-1 shows the most common materials recycled at recycling points pre- and mid-pilot - there are no significant changes.

Table 9-1 Most common materials recycled at recycling points pre- and mid-pilot

Table 9-2 shows the most common reasons cited for not using the pilot scheme service.

Table 9-2 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, 90% were satisfied with the service. The most common suggestions for improvement were: no suggestions for improvement (46%), collect more materials (12%), and alternative container type (6%). Figure 9-4 shows the main materials recycled using the pilot scheme.

Figure 9-4 Materials recycled ( SWAG survey results):

9.2.3 Operational feedback

The following points were highlighted by South Lanarkshire Council operational and waste management staff.

• The pilot scheme was considered both flexible and effective by South Lanarkshire operational staff.
• On the recyclate collection day the main vehicle inspects and loads the recyclate from each bin. If there is an issue of contamination the bin is stickered and a second (scavenge) vehicle uplifts the bin. The relevant households are then targeted for a face to face consultation or issued with the relevant contamination card.
• The capacity of the residual bins was sufficient for most householders whether or not they recycled. Consideration would be given to reducing the residual capacity on rollout of the scheme. It should be noted that some householders in South Lanarkshire own their own bins and this would be taken into consideration.
• In designing the layout of the scheme careful consideration had to be given to the routing of collection vehicles due to the mixed nature of properties in the pilot area. If a property is recognised as not suitable (e.g. bin store with no ventilation) then it should be excluded from the scheme at the outset.
• 240 and 360 litre wheeled bins are suitable for manual handling in the confined space and narrow store openings.
• Consideration would be given to improving the householders' ownership of the scheme by dedicating bins to properties. This would allow the participation of individual properties to be monitored and also improve qualitative and quantitative participation.
• It was considered fundamental to the success of the scheme that issues of contamination and non-participation were tackled in the early stages of the pilot. On rollout consideration would be given to the resource required for this to be effectively managed.

9.2.4 Summary of pilot scheme performance

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

9.3 Cost effectiveness analysis

South Lanarkshire 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 material recovery for pilot scheme rollout is estimated to be 95 kg/hh/yr. Therefore, the total amount of material recovered would be 606 tonnes/annum. Rollout costs have been agreed with South Lanarkshire Council and are shown in Table 9-3. These costs do not include the costs of a scavenger vehicle operated by the Council to collect contaminated recyclate bins. South Lanarkshire have not included these costs in their assessment of rollout as it an internal management system in South Lanarkshire council that may not be applicable in other Local Authorities. Full details of costs can be found in Annex 8 - Pilot Scheme Cost Data - and Annex 9 - Rollout Cost Data.

Table 9-3 Pilot scheme rollout costs - South Lanarkshire Council

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