Kerb sort saving LAs money in Northern Ireland.

Bryson Recycling is now advising local authorities in Northern Ireland that the best value for money approach to recycling is to switch to kerb sort.  

Bryson are in the unique positions of running both kerbside sort and commingled collection systems out of the same Belfast depot. When analysing the whole system costs, they estimate that kerb site sort operations are costing approximately one third the price of the commingled system.

“This is a way for councils to save money and dramatically improve their recycling and carbon performance,” says Eric Randall, general manager of Bryson; “and the materials collected provide a source of resources for local businesses to turn into products (40% of what we collect is reprocessed in NI).”

Bryson handle 60,000 tonnes of dry recyclate from 456,000 homes across Northern Ireland, 200,000 of which are kerbside sort collections.

From the Bryson experience, Eric identifies five factors that are the main drivers behind recycling rates:

• Social-economic factors (biggest determinant).
• Capacity of containers.
• Residual waste collected fortnightly.
• Range of materials collected.
• Strength of promotions.

Tonnages for authorities using the kerbside sort system are greater than those using a single wheeled bin for recyclates.

“Kerbside sort operations we run now have two 55 litre boxes that are collected once a week giving virtually the same capacity as the 240 litre once every two week collections we run, “ explains Eric. “You can have virtually the same container capacity with either system – its not the containers alone that determine how much our clients put out for recycling, it’s a range of factors.”

Food waste collection trials are underway in the kerb sort areas as the new mechanised vehicles Bryson have purchased can collect nine separate waste streams, including food, at a single pass. This capacity to expand the range of materials collected, especially the food component, “will have a dramatic impact on reducing costs further as recycling targets increase” according to Eric, “these new vehicles are a far cry from the old cage stillage vehicles we used to use – they can collect more, have a better health and safety design and greater flexibility for adding new materials. Food waste is going to be an increasingly significant factor in reaching higher diversion rates, and the ability to avoid a separate vehicle pass for this one waste stream will undoubtedly help keep costs down.”

From this …

To this … Is it such a huge step for the public?

More Info: www.brysonrecycling.co.uk

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