City of Rockingham Minutes – SMRC RRRC WCF Odour Issue – 27 May 2008
PURPOSE OF REPORT
To advise Council of the results of the SMRC Weekly Recycling Trial and consider the benefits and costs of implementing weekly recycling.
STRATEGIC PLAN
Function Area 3: Land Use and Environment
Action Plan 3.9 – In consultation with the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council. Continue to implement the waste management strategy including a review of waste collection to consider weekly recycling and commercial and industrial recycling.
BACKGROUND
The City of Rockingham together with other member Councils of the SMRC provide a fortnightly co-mingled recyclables collection service for their residents using 240 litre MGB’s. Since 2002 the amount of co-mingled recyclables collected has steadily increased at the rate of 12.5% above population growth and surveys conducted by the regional Council have shown that up to half of residents are filling their recycling bin to capacity each fortnight.
Attitudinal surveys of residents have also shown that a core group of around 30% of residents have remained highly committed to recycling through their developed habits and passion for the cause. Resident participation levels in the recycling service are above 95% however, the remaining majority of residents are susceptible to inadequacies in the provision of the service such as running out of space and are likely to dispose of recyclables to the waste stream in this situation. This is reflected in audits of the waste and recycling streams showing that only around 60% of recyclables are making it into the recycling bin.
DETAILS
In response to the survey results, research has now been carried out by the SMRC to determine the effectiveness of collecting recyclables on a weekly basis compared to the existing fortnight collections.
The trial demonstrated that the amount of recyclables put out for collection can increase by over 50% and the number of residents having full recycling bins would reduce significantly with weekly collections.
The environmental benefits of the improved performance of the collection system include reduced waste to landfill and greater recovery of resources. For those Councils sending their green bin waste to the SMRC’s composing facility, it will also mean that the waste material delivered will contain less non-compostable materials such as glass, metal and plastics and the additional paper recovered will be put to a higher use as recycled paper products.
Increasing the frequency of recycling collections from fortnightly to weekly will require more drivers to be employed to operate the additional collection trucks with increases in fuel usage. However, when the overall environmental impact is considered, there will be a net greenhouse reduction benefit in the order of 60 kilograms per household per year, resulting from the embodied energy realised from recovering the additional recyclable materials.
By diverting an estimated additional 20,000 tonnes per year of recyclables from landfill across the region this will avoid the associated energy intensive processing emissions from extracting and processing raw materials to make metal, plastic and paper products and only two thirds of the 9,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions abated would be required to offset the emissions of the entire regions waste and recycling collection fleet.
The current fortnightly collection requires special calendars to be provided to residents each year showing the correct week to place their recycling bins out for collection. If a resident misses a collection day then there will be a four-week gap between collections, likely to result in overflowing recyclable material being dumped to the waste bin. With weekly collections there is no need to refer to collection calendars and complete flexibility is offered to residents to place their recycling bin out for collection on any week of choice as required.
The weekly collection approach is therefore considered to be the most likely way to effectively address the capacity issue due to the convenience and flexibility offered and the simplification of communication messages to residents.
This was confirmed through the increase in recyclables collected and also through a survey of community attitudes undertaken at the end of the trial which showed that 52% of families were prepared to pay an additional $0.50 per week for weekly collections and 43% of households overall.
The additional cost of providing a weekly collection was estimated to be $0.25 per household per week for Councils currently disposing of their green bin waste to composting and $0.50 per household per week for Councils currently disposing of their green bin waste to landfill (City of Rockingham).
The reason for the lower cost to Councils disposing waste to composting is the greater reduction in processing cost when diverting the recyclables away from the composting facility to the materials recovery facility. That it, landfill is approximately half the cost of waste composting.
In summary, the survey found strong support for the weekly collection of recyclables to continue with 87% of households rating the introduction of the service as important and the predicted additional costs were close to the majority of the community’s expectations in terms of value for money for the additional service level.
The results of the SMRC trial were considered by the Regional Council at its meeting on 28 February 2008 and the Regional Council resolved:-
1. That the weekly kerbside recycling collections trial report be endorsed by Council.
2. That SMRC write to member Councils to consider the implementation of weekly collection of recyclables within their respective municipalities.
COMMENTS
The results of the weekly recycling trials clearly demonstrate significant environmental and service level benefits in introducing weekly recycling collection in lieu of the current fortnightly collection currently undertaken. However, it would involve an additional annual cost of approximately $26 per household per annum.
The trial demonstrated that the cost benefit ratio improved greatly for Councils utilising the Canning Vale Waste Compost Facility for secondary waste treatment.
The SMRC is about to prepare an amended Business Plan to enable the City of Rockingham to consider becoming a participant in the Regional Councils Secondary Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery Project. The Business Plan should be available for consideration by Council in 2009.
In view of this and the need to consider the impact of weekly recycling collection on the existing contract which expires in August 2011, it is considered appropriate to consider the introduction of a weekly collection of recyclables, in conjunction with the decision whether the City of Rockingham should participate in the Regional Councils Resource Recovery Project.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Nil
STATUTORY IMPLICATIONS
Nil
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The additional cost of implementing weekly recycling would need to be absorbed into the Annual Waste Management Service Charges.
VOTING REQUIREMENTS
Normal
OFFICER/COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION/COUNCIL RESOLUTION
Moved Cr A Prince, seconded Cr P Ellis That Council take the following action:-
1. Acknowledge the environment and service benefits that would result from the introduction of weekly recycling.
2. Consider the implementation of weekly recycling in conjunction with consideration of participation in the SMRC’s Resource Recovery Secondary Waste Treatment Project.
Committee Voting – 4/0
Carried – 10/0
