Recycling – stay green with the green box, says Hackney Friends of the Earth
Recycling using orange sacks: the council is proposing to sort things out later. Image: Hackney Council
Hackney Council is in negotiations about replacing the familiar green recycling box with orange sacks. The council’s aim is to increase recycling rates in Hackney and lower the costs of recycling services.
Whilst we agree it is positive that the council is exploring ways to move closer to its recycling target of 50% by 2020 (currently 25% of all waste is being recycled in Hackney), adopting the proposed system based on orange sacks would be a move in the wrong direction.
Whilst the orange sacks may be more suitable for residents living in high-rise estates or far from the kerbside, for all other properties on street level the new proposed system has a lot of downsides.
In contrast to the green box where recyclables are sorted manually on street level – and for that reason called ‘kerbside recycling’ – the mixed materials from orange sacks are taken to material recovery facilities and separated mechanically. This process is called commingling.
One of the key issues with commingling is that it leads to a higher grade of contamination of recyclables compared to the current kerbside recycling, the latter allowing a precise separation by hand. As it is much more difficult to make new products from contaminated recyclables, UK mills are much less willing to buy them. Consequently, materials are more likely to be shipped and processed abroad.
A Friends of the Earth briefing from 2009 points to a further significant disadvantage: in the commingling system, 10-15% of the collected material is not being recycled, compared to less than 1% in kerbside recycling (see this Friends of the Earth recycling briefing).
In addition to this, a smaller range of materials is being accepted in the orange sack. For example, it does not take clothes and batteries, which increases the risk of these more valuable resources ending up in landfill.
It is not only about the materials themselves: the vehicles which transport the recyclables also impact on how environmentally considerate the process is.
A recent comparison of the two recycling systems, prepared by Sustainable Hackney, shows that the use of more compact vehicles during collection of commingled recycling led to an increase in fuel use by 46%.
In a study commissioned by Camden Council, the overall carbon footprint of commingling recycling rose by 77% compared to kerbside recycling. The switch could thus make a dramatic difference to Hackney’s carbon emissions.
Instead of being led by short-term financial savings, Hackney Council should maintain the current green box system for street-level properties and support its residents to recycle more, and more regularly. The provision of reliable collection services is vitally important to this aim, as are regular promotional campaigns.
Clarification 1.55 pm Friday 13 April 2012: this article was written by Hackney Friends of the Earth
Related:
Hackney recycling – row grows over orange sacks
We would like to take this opportunity to clarify a number of points here:
Firstly, it is innacurate to describe this as a proposed change to the recycling system in Hackney. It was approved at Cabinet on 26 March 2012 and will be implemented in spring 2013. No written or oral deputations were received by Cabinet from Friends of the Earth or any other interest group. Hackney Citizen were not in attendance at the Cabinet meeting which is open to members of the public and press.
Secondly the 2009 FoE figure for rejection rates from commingled collections (10-15%) is out of date and not reflective of arrangements in North London where the rejection rate is currently between (4-5%).
Commingled collections will be taken to Bywaters MRF in Bow for separation. Bywaters aim to find UK markets for all recyclates as it minimises risk for them and delivers a higher end price. Representatives from Sustainable Hackney and other groups visited Bywaters MRF on March 6 2012 – Hackney Citizen declined an invitation to attend.
Clothes will continue be recycled at bring sites across the borough and battery recycling points are available at all libraries.
With regards to vehicles used in commingled collections there will be fewer vehicles moving more quickly and creating less congestion, thereby lowering fuel consumption. Sustainable Hackney’s figures are not an accurate modelling of this.
In addition the current green box system is unsuitable for 21.7% of Hackney’s housing mix.
This week a study was published which shows that 19 of the top 30 councils for recycling operate a fully commingled service:
Review of Kerbside Recycling Collection Schemes in the UK in 2010/11, by WYG Environment
We would request that this article is listed as ‘Opinion’ on the site as it is not an accurate or balanced ‘News’ article.
@Greener Hackney
Thank you for your clarifications and corrections.
The article is now correctly listed as ‘opinion’.
Could please confirm for our readers that you are a Hackney Council spokesperson?
– Ed.
Yes, I am a Hackney Council spokesperson.
[This comment was deleted following a request to do so from the commenter.]
Why don’t they give us a box / bag for each different type of material. i am amazed on our little one sided street they are parked with the engine running for 20 mins sorting the rubbish while we all could do it for them. or bring back ‘bottle bank’ type containers at the end of the street the lorry could pick up and drive away.
Kimberley that’s exactly what many councils have tried residents to do and it has failed miserably, specially in built up areas like london/hackney.
Please wake up to the reality that people are lazy and the majority don’t give a s–t.
Some do. But if we are so green we should try cutting down on crap that we buy or how we buy it.
I can confirm that Friederike was writing as a Friends of the Earth Hackney and Tower Hamlets spokesperson; you’ll notice that we have a monthly Hackney Citizen slot and we share the writing of these articles amongst group members.
On the date issue, the article was in fact written and submitted to Hackney Citizen prior to 26 March. We wanted to write on this issue given its timeliness; I’m sorry that on this occasion it was, as it were, too timely.
I’m pleased, however, to hear that the rejection rate for comingled recycling is better than we had understood – can you share the research to which you refer?
On the separation and contamination issue, I think our points stand. The fact that Bywaters aims to find UK markets for its recyclate does not disprove the fact that a) commingling leads to greater contamination, which b) makes it more difficult to make new products from recyclate and c) means that UK mills are less willing to buy them. We would be keen to see the data on what proportion of recyclate Bywaters’ is able to sell within the UK. I would also note that we saw the details of the visit to Bywaters and were keen to attend, but since we are volunteers with full time jobs we weren’t able to attend a visit on a Tuesday morning. Friederike is however, in the process of organising a separate visit for members of our group.
On clothes and batteries, we do not dispute that bring sites and battery recycling points will continue to be available within the borough. But since they are not accepted in the orange sacks we maintain that this system ‘increases the risk of these more valuable resources ending up in landfill’.
On vehicles, we would welcome an opportunity go through the figures and modelling in more detail – I don’t think that we can reach an agreement on the issue here.
You have said that the green boxes are unsuitable for 21.7% of Hackney’s housing. We said ‘Hackney Council should maintain the current green box system for street-level properties’. I presume that the unsuitable housing to which you refer relates to high-rise homes; clearly, for these properties another solution is needed and if the orange sacks are the best that can be achieved for those particular properties then they should indeed be introduced for those properties, but not to the detriment of recycling rates at street-level properties.
We accept that the WYG report seems provides strong evidence for commingling (although clearly it wasn’t available when we wrote our article). However, we would be keen to know Hackney Council’s assessment of Camden Council’s research, which showed that the overall carbon footprint of commingling recycling rose by 77% compared to kerbside recycling?
Finally, we would agree that the piece should have been listed as opinion, as is normally the case with our articles.
@Kate Hand
If you drop us an email to recyclingteam@hackney.gov.uk we can answer specific queries.
Most (non glass) mixed material ends up getting sent to poor countries to be sorted where the wages are low, there are no labour laws and are no environmental regulations.
The glass ends up as gravel instead of being recycled.
Greener hackney!
Sorry mixed recyclables are sorted in the Bywater site. with regards to glass using it as aggregate is recycling. i think you are refering to reusing which although is far superior in many cases to recycling is not recycling!
It is well worth a visiting the Bywater plant. For me it was an eyeopener and I am proud and privileged that my ward (Cazenove) was the first to trial the comingling scheme which has drastically increased the recycling rate whilst at the same time reducing congestion and C02 emmisions.