| Joint working to make “vision” a reality Through a Private Finance Initiative contract, Severn Waste Services (SWS) operates waste management facilities on behalf of Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council. Within the two counties are 7 local authority areas; Herefordshire Council – a unitary authority, Worcester City Council, Wychavon District Council, Malvern Hills District Council, Redditch Borough Council, Bromsgrove District Council and Wyre Forest District Council. A joint municipal waste management strategy for the region has been signed by all the authorities that sets out a ‘vision’ for all householders to be able to recycle materials including plastic bottles through a common kerbside collection system on alternate weeks to residual waste.
Details Scheme type and coverage Throughout Hereford and Worcestershire, SWS manage 16 household waste recycling centres and 2 MRF’s, one of which is situated at the Hill and Moor landfill site near Pershore, and the other at Rotherwas in Hereford. The majority of areas within Hereford and Worcester operate a twin bag collection. Clear and purple film sacks are used for collection of cans and plastics, and paper, card and textiles respectively. Sacks are collected on two week rotation on the same day as residual refuse, by a different vehicle. This material is delivered to the two operational MRFs for sorting. The MRFs also accept and sort some mixed cans and plastic bottles collected from kerbside box schemes operating in the northern districts of the County. In Worcester City, 26,000 households are being trialled on AWC (Alternate Weekly Collection) of recyclables with residual waste using wheeled bins. This scheme covers two thirds of the city with the remaining households using the clear and purple sacks. In Redditch, alternate weekly collections have been phased into the area with provision for glass collection offered. MRF operation Once at the MRF the sacks containing fibrous material are stored separately to the collection sacks containing the cans and plastics to avoid cross contamination of material. A twin line system MRF is used to process the material. On the purple bag line of the system the paper and textiles are positively sorted. Paper is segregated and stored loose to be transported to UPM Shotton. On the clear bag line a bag splitter breaks open the bags and deposits the material within the bag and the bag itself onto a collection conveyor ready for processing. An overband magnet and eddy current separates cans into aluminium and steel which are then baled for transport to Novelis and Corus CanRoute centres. Aluminium foil is also separated and baled. Plastics are sorted manually by 8 sorting operatives into PET clear, HDPE natural and HDPE ‘jazz’. 6 ‘T40’ balers are used to bale the plastic for sale. Coloured PET is not collected. The film collection sacks are also baled for sale. Currently co-mingled glass cannot be processed at existing MRFs in the area, and is being sent to London. The MRF at Hill and Moor is operating over maximum capacity levels with a throughput of 13,000 tonnes. Of this, in 2005, 782 tonnes was plastic, 594 tonnes of plastic bottles the remaining tonnage film from sacks. Markets for the material are not stable with price fluctuations influencing where it is sent for reprocessing. The nature of the site at Hill and Moor means that SWS are unable to stockpile and store until a better market price can be paid. Most material is sold through contractors to UK reprocessors. If the range of plastics able to be collected was to include ‘other’ rigid packaging plastics, viable markets outside the UK could be considered. Seeing the ‘vision’ SWS are in the process of tendering for a new fully automated MRF to be built at Norton, near Worcester. The planned facility for co-mingled dry recyclables collected from households will service both counties as households progress to alternate weekly collections and will have a 100kt maximum capacity, with 5% of capacity for plastic bottles. The new MRF is expected to be operational in 2008. Any further plans to include ‘new technologies’ in the plant would only be considered on the basis that it was part of a recycling system in agreement with the County Council. Other waste management companies looking to develop bottle recycling in the UK would benefit from understanding how maximum return can be achieved on material that is collected. While plastics collections do not exhibit high tonnages, sorting by polymer type either manually or through automatic sorting systems, can increase value. Clear labelling of products by manufacturers will allow both the public and waste management companies to identify plastic types more easily. Increased use of material with a recycled content in the manufacture of packaging products would help to raise awareness and promote the recycling message further. Further information www.severnwaste.com |