LAWR

NEWS March 2015 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 5 FOR MORE NEWS AND ANALYSIS VISIT www.edie.net /waste West Midlands-based Walsall Council has withdrawn plans to charge for green waste collections from 2016, after more than 70% of residents said they would not pay for the service. The decision was taken follow- ing a consultation on draft budget proposals that would save the Council a total of £29m next year (and a further £57m over the fol- lowing three years) to deal with central Government budget cuts. The draft proposals included plans to reduce the frequency of the street cleansing service and cutting 15 green jobs (saving £477,732 in 2015/16), to switch from weekly to fortnightly resid- ual waste collections in 2016/17 (saving £532,000) and to introduce green waste charges from 2016. It also planned to close all of its HWRCs for one additional day at each site per week and to reduce daily opening hours to 9am to 5pm (saving £98,000). The news comes at a time when the DCLG recently unveiled pro- posals preventing councils from charging residents to use HWRCs, as some councils have intro- duced or are planning to intro- duce charges. It claimed that the Government was worried that charges would inconvenience residents, increase fly-tipping and make recycling harder. Council withdraws green waste collection charge Housebuilders urged to find radical solutions to tackle 'bin blight' issue Architects need to rethink the way they design bin storage for new hous- ing developments in order to make bins less visible and prevent hazard risks to residents, according to a report by the National House Building Council (NHBC) Foundation. The NHBC study is entitled 'Avoiding Rubbish Design: Providing for bin storage on new housing'. It offers designers seven 'golden rules' for good storage design and examples of best practice which include: local bin strategy, use of available space, com- munal storage, collection and access, appearance and quality, flexibility and street scene. The report highlights that "ideally bins should be stored alongside each other and sufficient height should be allowed so that lids can be opened fully without having to pull the bins out". It explains that good design will anticipate and make dedicated arrangements for collection days. According to the report, without a dedicated on-street area for placing bins, they tend to be left scattered until residents move them back to their original position which could pose a hazard to residents. A survey carried out by the NHBC of 325 local authorities, as part of the report, found a huge disparity in the number of bins required in each area with nearly two thirds (212) requiring households to have four or more bins and other waste containers to col- lect household waste. In Newcastle- under-Lyme, households had to have nine bins and containers, while in other areas people only need one. NHBC Foundation head of research and innovation Neil Smith said: "Ill- thought out waste storage creates a real challenge and it sometimes seems as if insufficient attention is given to how bins are accommodated on new housing developments. "Designers need to find practical ways to hide numerous wheelie bins and other containers. Alternatively, the time may have come for Britain's house-building industry to consider more radical solutions to solve the bin blight problem - such as shared facili- ties on street corners or underground bin storage." Communities Secretary Eric Pickles welcomed the report saying too many streets were still dominated by "the ugly clutter of unsightly bins ruining the look" of homes. England records 'best' quarterly recycling rate KEEN TO RECYCLE – Keenan Recycling, a Scottish organic recycling firm, has tripled its customer base (600 to 1,800) since the introduction of new food waste recycling regulations affecting firms across Scotland. It now collects more than 60,000 tonnes of waste. England recycled 48.5% of its household waste in the first quar- ter of 2014/15 (April-June 2014), the highest rate achieved for this period since reporting of this measure become available in 2010, according to figures from Defra. Defra attributes some of the increase to a rise in composting of green waste, which could be thanks to a warmer than aver- age spring felt across England in 2014. According to both NASA and NOAA, the year 2014 was the hottest ever measured, since records began. A total of 1.5 million tonnes of green waste was collected and treated on behalf of councils in the first quarter of 2014/15, compared to 1.29 million 12 months earlier. The UK has an EU target to recycle at least 50% of waste gen- erated by households by 2020. The NHBC praises underground bin systems (pictured above)

• Cover