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Ins and outs: Questions and answers Ashford Borough Council and its waste contractor Biffa recently made a TV appear- ance on BBC South East's 'Inside Out' investigative and news analysis programme. It showed a feature on Ashford Borough Council's remarkable recycling transfor- mation and Biffa's ultra-modern MRF in Edmonton, north London. Liz Gyekye asks both sides in a Q&A session about the secrets to their success. ut before curiosity kills the cat, I would like to fill you in with some background informa- tion first. The BBC pro- gramme showed reporter Rachel Royce interviewing Ashford councillor Jessamy Blanford and Biffa municipal development director Pete Dickson about the borough's new recycling and refuse service. It also shadowed a Biffa collection round, and fol- lowed dry recyclables sent for processing to Biffa's ultra-modern MRF. Since Biffa helped roll out the new collection service to Ashford residents last July, the borough has transformed its performance and is now recycling around 56% of its domestic waste. This would put it in the top 30 of Defra's 2012-13 league table. Ashford was his- torically ranked bottom of this table. It used to have a recycling rate of 12% (2011-2012). Ashford's new service com- prises a weekly food waste collection and an alternate week collection of com- mingled dry recyclables and of residual waste, both from wheeled bins. So, what does Biffa's Pete Dickson think? Biffa Municipal development director Pete Dickson's Q&A session. How did you (Ashford) manage to triple your recycling rates in a short space of time? By designing and implementing a sim- ple, easy-to-use collection service that would enable residents to recycle more, both by materials and by volume. Rather than tinkering with the service, Ashford boldly decided to make sweeping chang- es, and that bravery has been amply rewarded. The combination of wheeled bins for alternate week collections of commingled dry recyclables and for resid- ual waste, plus weekly collections of food waste, are proven to lift recycling rates. There was also a substantial invest- ment in a well-planned and executed communications campaign to inform and motivate local residents. Biffa Municipal's substantial expertise and experience helped Ashford deliver a breath-taking turnaround in its recycling performance: to be recycling around 56% of domestic waste after a few months is a real achievement. We had faith in the new service as it's the same model that is used by Biffa clients who occupy second, third and fourth place in Defra's 2012-13 recycling league table. How do you overcome challenges of input and output and engage with the rest of the supply chain? Wheeled bin collections are likely to generate higher levels of contamina- tion - but that is far outweighed by the additional and substantial volumes of recyclable materials captured. In my experience, this contamination level doesn't detract from achieving reproces- sors' quality specifications. A combi- nation of education and enforcement are used in partnership with Biffa to proactively manage input quality for MRFs. Modern MRFs are designed to deal with contamination, but we do rec- ognise that it requires collective effort and joint responsibility to get the best practicable quality for recyclables going into the MRF. The most important point overall is that the reprocessor receives recyclates that fall within the tolerances of its input specification, and this can be achieved both at the kerbside and at the MRF. Should the onus be on the local authority or MRF operator to check quality inputs ? As stated above, it should be both. The local authority generates the recycla- bles, from which the MRF produces its recyclates. Do you have any opinions on the MRF Code of Practice? It's long overdue and should have a posi- tive impact on the contamination/reject levels experienced at MRFs. However, the detail on product destinations for each council providing inputs (recycla- bles) is difficult at best, as most local authorities represent less than 10% of a MRF's input materials (the remainder is usually commercial and industrial material), yet mixed outputs are going to various reprocessors in any given period. To trace all inputs to specific end desti- nations isn't really practical, and may be impossible to do accurately. 24 Local Authority Waste & Recycling April 2014 B MAPPING THE MRF Pete Dickson April 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 25 What are your future plans? As ever, Biffa Municipal will continue to offer value-for-money services for local authorities, to continuously improve our service standards, to increase recycling, and to produce quality recyclables that produce quality recyclates. And what does Ashford Borough Council think? An Ashford Borough Council spokesman answers the below questions. How did you (Ashford) manage to triple your recycling rates in a short space of time? We have seen outstanding results, thanks to the hard work of the council, Biffa and, most of all, our residents. Do you have any opinions on the MRF Code of Practice? Ashford as part of the Kent Resource Partnership welcomes the introduction of the MRF Regulations and supports effective enforcement by the regulatory authorities in all nations of the UK. Many of the scheme characteris- tics were called for by the KRP at the time of the Defra consultation have been adopted in the Regulations and the accompanying Sampling Guidance. This includes transparency of pub- lished information about MRF qual- ity of recyclates sent to reprocessors. What are your future plans? Ashford Borough Council will contin- ue to work with its Mid-Kent partners (Swale Borough Council /Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council) and Biffa to expand recycling services in the area. A new food waste service is currently being rolled out in Swale as part of the new joint waste contract. A new 'Mid Kent Innovation Forum' has also been established to identity opportunities to expand recycling oppor- tunities and increasing the recycling of bulky waste is currently being explored. EXPERTS IN BALANCING HEAVY LOADS Tel: 01527 526112 www.redforge.co.uk MAPPING THE MRF info@macrete.com Ashford triples its recycling rate in a period of time

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