Sandwell Council is proposing changes to waste and recycling services following guidance issued by the Government on how waste and recycling should be collected.
As a result, the council is proposing to change the frequency and method of waste and recycling collections.
What does this mean for waste and recycling collections?
Currently residents have their grey refuse waste bin and blue-lid recycling bin collected every week.
From summer 2025, it is proposed that both refuse and recycling will change to alternate weekly collections (AWC).
Residents will continue to get a weekly collection, but it will be residual waste (grey bin) one week and recycling (blue-lid bin) the next.
Other household bin collections are unaffected – food collections remain weekly and garden waste fortnightly on a subscription basis.
Dual-Stream Recycling – what does this mean?
Recycling collections are proposed to change to a dual-stream system. This means residents will be provided with a new receptacle (potentially a woven polypropylene bag) and residents will be asked to separate paper and card from the rest of the recycling. Glass, cans, and plastics would continue to go in the blue-lid recycling bin.
High-Rise and Low-Rise flats will be dealt with separately.
Why are we proposing changing the service?
Sandwell’s current recycling performance is poor with high contamination levels (wrong waste put in the wrong bin). Contaminated waste cannot be recycled and therefore is expensive to dispose of and the value of these materials as a resource is lost. For 2022/23 Sandwell ranked 309 out of 343 councils across England where the best performing council is 61.6% and the worst, 17.7%.
Sandwell residents generate a high percentage of residual waste (waste that’s not recycled) compared to others local authorities in England. Sandwell’s average residual waste per household is 626 kg, compared to the England average of 464 kgs per household. The proposal aims to improve Sandwell’s current recycling rate of 29.2%.
|
|
Sandwell |
Peer group average |
England Average |
|
Recycling Contamination |
16.1% |
7.9% |
5.8% |
|
Household Recycling |
29.2% |
35.2% |
41.1% |
|
Residual Household Waste (kg/household) |
626kg |
549kg |
464kg |
In addition to reducing contamination in recycling, the council also need to prepare for a range of legislative changes listed below.
The Environment Act 2021 – Promoting the principles of the circular economy reducing waste and promoting resource efficiency, with a strong emphasis on combating climate change. Standardisation of waste and recycling across local authorities stipulating a core set of recyclable materials that must be collected individually from households and businesses. These materials must be collected separately unless it is not technically or economically practicable to do so.
Evidence indicates that dual-stream collections increase the value of the recycling materials and reduce contamination of materials.
The Government’s targets for recycling are:
- 2025 – 55%
- 2030 – 60%
- 2035 – 65% with no more than 10% going to landfill by 2035
- Sandwell's current performance – 29.2%
Simpler Recycling Programme – On the 21 October 2023, the Government announced further future reforms to household and business bin collections under its Simpler Recycling programme.
This new regulation aims to clear up confusion over recyclable and non-recyclable materials, standardise recycling practices for homes, workplaces, and schools, and tackle illegal waste activities, promoting a more sustainable and environmentally conscious society.
Its aim is for all domestic waste collections include the seven core recycling streams, improving the UK’s household waste recycling towards the target of 65% by 2035.
The core recyclable waste streams in England’s Simpler Recycling scheme are, paper, card, plastic, glass, metal, food waste and garden waste.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is due to commence in 2025 and will place the responsibility for paying for the treatment of packaging waste onto the producers of the material. Producers will pay annually into a scheme and funds will be allocated to local authorities to cover the costs of managing packaging waste.
The detail related to EPR is still being developed, but there is an expectation that kerbside collection schemes should be ‘efficient and effective’. It is likely local authority performance will be benchmarked with peer group authorities with similar size and demographics. Where the performance is not as expected, the scheme administrator can reduce the payment to the authority and issue the council with an improvement plan.
As Sandwell’s current performance is towards the bottom of its peer-group authorities there is a risk that Sandwell Council’s performance would be called into question.
Fees for packaging placed on the market are due to commence October 2025.
Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) – The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is already in place and applies to industries that generate high levels of greenhouse gases e.g. power generation and aviation. From 2028, it is proposed that Energy from Waste (EfW) plants fall under the scheme. This will mean that operators will have to purchase carbon allowances for every tonne of fossil carbon that a facility produces.
All Sandwell’s residual waste goes to Energy from Waste plants. ETS will add a premium to the disposal of refuse via EfW, of potentially £50/tonne which Sandwell will be liable to pay. As mentioned, Sandwell’s residual waste levels are high and it has been estimated that ETS could increase the council’s cost of disposal by £3.4 million per annum.
One of the main sources of fossil carbon processed at EfW’s is plastic and textiles, which could be recycled. The most recent compositional analysis indicates that 34% of Sandwell’s refuse currently comprises recyclable materials – in particular plastics and textiles. It is therefore critical that Sandwell optimise every opportunity to divert recycling from the refuse stream into recycling.
What are the benefits of moving to AWC and dual-stream service?
By moving bin collections to AWC means that the council can:
- drive behaviour changes by promoting waste reduction and better management of valuable resources through recycling;
- create a more sustainable and environment focussed borough,
- reduce our carbon footprint and improve climate change;
- increase the value of our recycling materials and treating waste as a resource;
- provide an efficient and effective, high performing service;
- provide efficiency savings which can be used to fund other critical services in the council; and
- significantly reduce the potential for non-compliance costs in the future.