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4 Aberdeen City Council

4.1 Details of pilot scheme

4.1.2 Pilot scheme area

The pilot scheme area was situated in Pitoddrie, approximately 0.5 km north of Aberdeen city centre. The area comprises 1877 households, the majority of which are one or two bedroom flats in traditional granite tenements.

Annex 4 provides a breakdown of the ACORN classification for the pilot area. The majority of the area (88%) is made-up of what are classed as "young educated workers, flats" (Type 17). The Council chose this area as it was typical of many of the households found in the city and it formed a reasonably distinct area.

4.1.3 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 was via local recycling points. Amongst the respondents to the SWAG pre-pilot survey, the recycling point at Morrisons Supermarket on King Street was the most commonly used. This is situated immediately adjacent to the pilot area. The following materials are collected at the recycling point: steel and aluminium cans; glass; paper and cardboard; plastic bottles; textiles.

4.1.4 Pilot scheme

The main objective of the scheme was to pilot the provision of on-street recyclate collection for tenement properties with limited or no access to the rear of the property. A selection of the waste bins were replaced by metallic coloured 1280L Taylor recycling bins which collected either a) paper and cardboard, or b) plastic bottles, steel and aluminium food cans. Bins had colour coded lids and residents were provided with re-useable sacks to store and transport their recyclate. Approximately one bin was provided per 50 households. Either a paper and cardboard, or a mixed recyclate bin, was also sited next to a residual bin.

At the outset of the scheme it was intended that the bins would be emptied once a week with material being delivered to SITA's MRF at the East Tullos Transfer Station. It was planned for the residual waste collection system to remain unchanged.

The pilot scheme infrastructure can be summarised as overleaf.

On-street recyclate collection was chosen for the pilot as there was 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.

Figure 4-1 On-street collection in Aberdeen

4.2 Pilot scheme evaluation

4.2.1 Tonnage of material recovered

The pilot scheme commenced operation on 12th September 2005. For the period up to 6th February 2006, data received from Aberdeen Council shows a total of 10.49 tonnes of recyclate material was collected. However, during this period no data was available for four weeks during November. It has been estimated that 3 tonnes of material were collected during this period and therefore the total amount of material is likely to be around 13.5 tonnes. This is equivalent to a diversion rate of 0.66 kg/hh/week.

Separate tonnage data was collated for the amount of paper collected each week. This data shows that paper typically accounted for 80 - 90% of the material collected by weight. A full data set is provided in Annex 7. Results from waste analysis are discussed separately in Section 11.

4.2.2 Results of SWAG public opinion surveys

In Aberdeen 313 people responded to both the pre- and mid-pilot surveys. Figure 4-2 & Figure 4-3 summarise the key results for the SWAG public opinion surveys. Before the pilot, 83% of respondents stated they had no household recycling scheme. With the pilot in place, 50% reported they knew about it and used it, 21% knew about it but did not use it, and 28% reported they did not have, or did not know about, the pilot recycling scheme.

Figure 4-2 Use of a household recycling scheme: pre- and mid-pilot.

Figure 4-3 Use of recycling points: pre- and mid-pilot

The reported use of recycling points reduced from 47% to 36% and the reported use of recycling centres dropped from 12% to 6%. The main types of materials recycled at recycling points,

Table 4-1, remained broadly similar.

Table 4-1 Most common materials recycled at recycling points

Table 4-2 shows the most common reasons cited for not using the pilot scheme service.

Table 4-2 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, 92% were satisfied with the service. The most common suggestions for improvement were: no suggestions for improvement (41%), more materials should be collected (22%), more/closer bins (10%).

Figure 4-4 shows the main materials that respondents recycled using the pilot scheme service.

Figure 4-4 Materials recycled ( SWAG survey results)

4.2.3 Operational feedback

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

• During the first two weeks of the pilot scheme two collections of recyclate material had to be disposed of to landfill due to contamination.
• The bins accepting plastic bottles and cans were underused.
• On introduction of the scheme, collections from residual bins were increased from two to three times a week. It was subsequently reduced back to two mid-way through the scheme.
• There would be potential to add a glass bottles recycling bin. In some cases, existing recycling bins were contaminated by glass bottles.

4.2.4 Summary of scheme performance

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

4.3 Cost effectiveness analysis

Aberdeen City 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 the scheme rollout is estimated to be 34 kg/hh/yr. Therefore, the total amount of material recovered would be 289 tonnes/annum. Rollout costs have been agreed with Aberdeen City 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 4-3 Pilot scheme rollout costs - Aberdeen City Council

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