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NEWS 6 Local Authority Waste & Recycling May 2014 Householders in the UK and France often assume that the recy- cling process ends when they dis- card an item, according to a new study commissioned by Coca-Cola Enterprises and the University of Exeter. The drinks giant initially commissioned the study with the University of Exeter to bet- ter understand how household dynamics influence recycling behaviours. The research is entitled 'Unpacking the household', led by Dr Stewart Barr, observed 20 families, couples and single-person households in Great Britain and France, in their own homes, for six months. The survey found that the majority of households do not have an accurate understanding of what happens to waste once it has been collected for recycling. It also highlighted how householders view recycling as a 'linear', rather than a 'circular' process. They often assume the recycling process ends when they discard them, the survey found. According to the research, for those who do think about their recyclables after they leave the home, there can be a degree of scepticism, with some household- ers questioning existing collection systems and referencing materials being 'sent to landfill' or 'exported abroad' for sorting or re-processing. This view is often compounded by negative media stories, with many participants recalling high- profile reports and documentaries around negative recycling pro- cesses. This misconception and scep- ticism prevents people from understanding the true value of recycling, often leading to apathy, which represents a major threat to the overall success of the collec- tion and recycling process, accord- ing to the Coca-Cola research. Householders 'misunderstand' what happens to waste after collection The metal recycling industry is calling for local authorities to speed up the processing of licences for scrap metal dealers six months after new legislation was implemented in England and Wales. The new Scrap Metal Dealers' Act 2013 was introduced to limit the potential outlets for stolen metal and enable authorities to crack down on criminal activ- ity. However, the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) says that the problem of delayed licences is affecting the ability of the authorities to enforce the new regime. The new Act brought in a new licensing system run by local authorities for both mobile and site-based scrap metal dealers. Roughly 40% licences are still unissued after the 1 December 2013 enforcement date has passed, after which all operators are legally required to possess a licence. Ealing Council has partnered up with Greenreedem, a subsidiary of waste management firm Grundon, to introduce a recycling rewards programme for its residents. Here at the launch event are (L-R) Ealing Council execu- tive director of Environment and Customer service Keith Townsend, Ealing councillor Julian Bell, Greenredeem marketing director Rob Crumbie and Greenredeem business development manager Michael Ball. Scrap metal regs warning The Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee is investigating the impact of the decision by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to "step back" from creating new waste policy. In December 2013, Resource Minister Dan Rogerson wrote to members of the waste and resources industry warning them that, from April 2014, Defra would be 'stepping back' from some of its waste policy work. In his first official address to the industry, Rogerson wrote that due to funding cuts, Government had been "reassessing Defra's activities on waste management for 2014/15 to focus on the essen- tials that only Government can and must do". In light of this, EFRA has launched an inquiry into existing approaches to the recycling and treatment of municipal waste in England, and the impact of the reduction of Defra's activities in municipal waste management and a look at AD strategy. Defra under scrutiny • The recycling infrastructure in households must be adjusted • The majority of households do not have an accurate understanding of what happens to their waste once it has been collected, with many not realising that their recycled items are returned to them as other products or packaging. • Households are sceptical about what happens to their recycling once collected, with many believing it is all 'sent to landfill' or 'exported abroad.' • Digital communication and social media could be put to greater use, encouraging people to form new recycling habits Other key findings from the study include: PROFILE Software pioneer AMCS Group is a world giant in the provision of software and vehicle technology to the waste and recycling industry. It has recently secured £19m funding to support its growth plans and cre- ate 20 new jobs in the UK. Liz Gyekye catches up with the firm's chief executive and cofounder Jimmy Martin to find out more. Since 2003 Martin has successfully grown and developed the company from a start- up in Limerick, Ireland to world leading environmental soft- ware company with operations in Ireland, UK, Sweden, Norway, France and the USA. Over the past decade, Jimmy has been responsible for many roles within the company ranging from technology development to operations and sales as well as leading two highly successful funding dialogues. So what are his plans? How are you making route optimisation technology to make waste collection rounds more efficient in the sector? The main goal is to gather data about what is happening on the rounds and making use of this data to make intel- ligent decisions. This in turn can help to change behav- iour of the customers or be used to change the size of the trucks to make them more efficient, or even the fre- quency of how you collect the bins. The data helps to create a direct line of communication with the customer which can also be used to help tell them how well they are performing at recy- cling. For instance, on a street level, the data could be used to inform a street that they are performing well at recycling or badly. If they are performing badly then you could inform the customer of their recycling level and say 'did you know you could recycle this? Or this goes in this bin?' This means that you can continuously monitor performance of the round and analyse changes in trends. What trends are you noticing in the sector? I have noticed in Ireland there is huge interaction with the customer. In the UK the customer as viewed as just a 'house- holder' – somebody to provide a service to rather than a customer you commu- nicate with on a regular basis. The level of interaction seems to be quite low here compared to other countries. Trends are demographic dependent. In the US, you have a pattern of high recycling rates in the West Coast, with some states reaching up to 70% [San Francisco]. However, in other parts of the US recycling can be quite poor. Sweden has recycling rates of 50% and only 1% of waste goes to landfill with 49% been converted to energy. Ireland's recycling has increased sig- nificantly over the last number of years with to an average of 40% with some regions achieving close to 50%, also in Ireland there is big trend toward RDF (refuse derived fuel) with over 20% expected to be exported as RDF in 2014 and another 20% shall be collected as organic waste and converted to energy or compost. France is starting to think differently and has started to legislate the polluter pays principle. In 2014 over 7% of houses where charged directly for waste collection and it is expected that all houses shall be charged directly for waste service by 2020. In the US and Sweden, they tend to implement high-level service agree- ments with the contractor collecting the materials. So, a typical waste manage- ment contract over 5-10 years tends to be a lot more dynamic. This means that they tend to use data to help define the performance of the contractor collect- ing waste and recycling and they are paid based on this performance using data from on vehicle systems such as RFID and on board computer technology. Elsewhere, we have found that recy- cling messages delivered in schools helps with better performance. If kids are tar- geted at schools they tend to educate their parents and people they live with to recycle more. Where do you see the next 10 years going? Waste is also being seen as a resource across the board. People realise that there is value in materials. Big players now see themselves as resource companies as opposed to waste ones. We see this hap- pening in different sectors of the waste industry including: composting, waste- to-energy, plastics and landfill-to-gas. More needs to be done to get munici- pal recycling rates up. In the commer- cial sector economics has helped this to happen, especially when the landfill tax increased to around £60-£70 per tonne around two years ago. In the next ten years it will become uneconomical and legislatively prohibi- tive to open new landfills in western Europe so it is imperative that we all see waste for what it truly is - a resource that we prevent from been wasted in the first place. S May 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 7 AMCS Group CEO Jimmy Martin

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