NERF March 2013 The Journey in Northumberland for Kerbside Recycling Sheila Johnson

1. NERF March 2013 The Journey in Northumberland for Kerbside Recycling Sheila Johnson Senior waste management officer

2. Presentation Outline • Our service arrangements • Background, pre 2009 • PFI contract • Why a MRF? • Keeping our material in demand • Methodology to date • How we measure success • Conclusions • Future plans

3. Our service arrangements – Route for recycling in Northumberland Materials Recycling Facility at West Sleekburn, Northumberland

4. General Waste General rubbish Energy from waste plant at Teesside

5. Background- Pre 2009 • Districts using different MRFs with varying lengths of contracts – no kerbside sorts • Target materials from kerbs differ in each district • Pilot areas for box glass collections in small parts of some districts • Paper, cans and plastic bottles common to all • Cardboard, shredded paper, plastic tubs, foil not common to all • All districts on AWC with co-mingled v rubbish • Kerbside bins in a variety of colours & uses • Waste team priorities vary in each district • Standard collection weeks vary in each district and also holiday arrangements differ

6. PFI & contract requirements • 28 year PFI Contract signed in 2006 • MRF provided with state of art, highly mechanised technology • SITA MRF opened in 2009 and started taking co-mingled material • All county co-mingled going to SITA MRF by 2011 • Target materials specified in the contract • Contract specifies maximum percentage of contamination acceptable in recyclate • Obligation for SITA to market test and profit share where income exceeds agreed level

7. Why a MRF and not a kerbside sort? • Large geographical area, sparse population in 95% of it • Big travel distances for small tonnages • 240 Litre recycling bins believed to encourage higher rates of recycling • Infrastructure already in place for co-mingled collections – vehicles, wheeled bins, manpower. • 7 highest performing LAs achieving via co-mingled collections in 2011/12

8. How we can ensure that Northumberland recyclate is in demand • Work with SITA to ensure MRF working efficiently • Monitor SITA performance re: market testing • Ensure MRF working in compliance with current code of practice • Ensure collections follow current code of practice • Provide residents with recycling advice using a variety of methods and routes • Explain to residents WHY we restrict target materials – collection, sort, end market • Removal of glass boxes but increase in coverage of glass bring sites • Same target materials throughout whole county

9. Methodology to date • Area recycling officers, and central team officers x 2 • Staff training – refuse crews, contact centres etc • Target low performing / high contamination areas • Use of national branding for comms material • Written information via Webpages, leaflets, vehicle signage, wheels • Bin tagging and monitoring at the kerbside • School visits, competitions, games and workshops • Educational ‘freebies’ eg. Wheels, colour in cotton bags, resource boxes, mugs • Incentives through partnership working and WANE • Tours of MRF • Public events, talks, unmanned stands • Online postcoded self-serve collection calendars

10. How we measure efforts and success or failure • Waste % of rejects from MRF • Tonnages of recyclate • Number of people spoken to • Leaflets etc distributed • Schools visited and children engaged • Red tags issued, letters written and re-offenders • Customer satisfaction surveys • Knowledge on doorsteps • Face to face conversations • Hits to website pages

11. MRF efficiency % • MRF efficiency exceeding target

12. NI 192 - % Household waste Reused/ Recycled/ Composted • Recovered material rising

13. NI 191 – Residual household waste KG/ Household • Total residual waste falling.

14. Conclusions • Many different ways needed to get the message over • Old habits die hard • ‘The man in the pub’ is considered more reliable than the professionals for a source of information • There is definitely a right and a wrong way of stickering bins • Training front line staff in target material and why they are targeted is of benefit • Training crews into which bins should be red or amber tagged ensures a uniform approach

15. Conclusions……. • If crews are asked to red tag contaminated bins, they need to see that their efforts are endorced by the back office and managers • Balance between clear and simple information and enough information is important but may vary from one audience to another • National branding – Recycle Now – is remembered • Council tax envelopes are a cheap way of distributing information • Door-stepping is labour intensive • Thank people for doing it right (Using bin wagon sides)

16. Doorstepping County-wide stickering programme Council tax envelopes to include ‘How to Recycle’ leaflet More red-tagging and amber-tagging activities EfL leaflets – word free or word limited where needed Holiday let properties to receive more information to address problem of glass contamination in coastal areas Further improvements to webpages to enable self-serve information from ipads, mobile phones with particular regard to WHY we restrict target materials Use of social media to distribute simple messages on target materials Seeking best practice from other LAs and WRAP Future plans

17. Thank you Sheila Johnson Senior waste management officer