HOW LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE

IMPLEMENTING SEPARATE

FOOD WASTE COLLECTIONS

JEAN HUGHES RECYCLING & SUPPORT OFFICER, ISLINGTON COUNCIL

DAY ONE, 3RD JULY

15.00 – 16.00

@adbiogas #UKADBiogas

Jean Hughes, Recycling Project Officer

How Islington is Implementing Separate Food

Waste Collections

Borough Profile

• Diverse inner-London borough

• Population is 175,787

• Third-smallest local authority geographically

• Second highest residential density in England and Wales

• High proportion of households in estates and blocks of flats

(approximately 40%)

Recycling food waste services

• Street properties

• Estate properties

• Schools

• Prisons

• Trade

Other food initiatives

• Islington Food Strategy

• Love Food, Hate Waste Campaign

• Business food waste collections

Collection details:

Materials collected – all food waste, raw and cooked, including meat and fish

Items collected

Materials reprocessed:

• Food waste weighed

at depot, off-loaded

and bulked

• In-vessel composting

site at Edmonton

EcoPark

In-vessel composting site

Street properties

• Weekly collection

• 5 litre internal caddie

• Liners permitted

• 25 litre external lockable

container

• Co-collected with garden waste

Vehicles

Split-bodied 30% organic 70% dry recycling

Closing the loop

• Residents can purchase

bags of compost

• Compost giveaway days

Survey results

Reasons given for not participating in food waste

service.

No space

5%

Unhappy with

service

1%

No time to

participate

10%

Attracts flies

maggots

19%

Other

3%

Too difficult to

keep containers

clean

22%

Odours

10%

Don’t know

about it

30%

Barriers and lessons learned

• Residents concerned about odours, flies and dirty containers

• Liners were not permitted at time of roll out

• Liners now permitted (can collect from libraries)

• Drop in participation after a hot summer

• Top tips for hot weather

• Service issues –missed collections , plastic bags

• Good collection protocol and liaison with crews

• Good reporting and monitoring of missed collections

• Feedback cards

Performance improvement actions

• Participation 27.4%

• Compulsory recycling monitoring

• Trial for crews stocking liners

• Communications campaign 2012-13

Estates food waste

Estates food waste collections:

• Internal kitchen caddy for

participating households

• 22,000 properties rolled

• Weekly collection

Existing estates food waste recycling service

Collection details:

Containers

- Provision of internal

5 litre caddy for households

- compostable liners provided

- lid in lid wheelie bin

140 or 240 liters depending on capacity

requirements

Estates and flats food waste recycling service

Collection details:

• Weekly collection

• 7.5 tonne vehicle fitted

with bin lifter

• 1 driver, 1 operative

Estates and flats food waste recycling service

Consultation with key stake holders

• Property Managers

• Contractor

• Caretakers

• TRAs and TMOs

• Homes for Islington, neighbourhood officers

• Residents

Consultation Methods

• Stakeholder workshops

• Meetings

• Letters

Messages

• It’s easy to recycle your food waste

• Equality of service

• Refuse store will be cleaner

• Environmental benefits

• What happens to the food waste once collected

Bin stickers and intro leaflet

Caddie stickers and main roll-out leaflet

Additional communications

• Estate newsletters

• Posters

• Features in Council magazine

• Guidance notes/ training for collection operatives, contact centre

• Guidance notes for libraries and estate offices that distribute

liners

Performance

• 1.4 kg/hh/wk

20% participation 1.7 kg/hh/wk

30% participation 2.4 kg/hh/wk

Contamination

• Reported contamination

• Visit site

• Add stickers if necessary

• Write to residents and enclose liners

• Encourage caretakers to stock liners

• Monitor

Stickers

Jean Hughes

Jean.hughes@islington.gov.uk

020 7527 5157

Thank you