FOI request (FOIR-126732197)

Recycling

Requested Tue 25 June 2019
Responded Fri 05 July 2019

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I would like to request the following information in relation to collections of public refuse and recycling. By "recycling" I mean items specifically put out to be collected as part of your "recyclable waste" collection service. I require this information for research purposes please.

My questions are as follows:

1. Please can you provide figures for the year(s) 2016, 2017, 2018 outlining the rates of overall recycling by households in your council area?

2. Please can you also provide figures for the years 2016, 2017, 2018 outlining how much of the items put out to be recycled ended up being sent to a landfill and/or incinerated instead? (i.e. plastic)

3. Please can you confirm how often you run the following services:

a. Garden waste collections

b. Recyclable waste collections

c. Household waste collections

4. Finally, can you please confirm of the three above services listed that you offer to households in your area, whether or not any of these are out sourced to private companies? If yes, please specify which.

I am able to receive the attached documents by email if that makes it easier - preferably in an excel or word format.

Response

Question 1 - I have provided the quarterly figures for each year - April to June Q1, July to Sept Q2, October to December Q3, and January to March Q4

2016:

Q1 - 32.3%, Q2 - 31.6%, Q3 - 30.7%, Q4 - 30.9%

2017:

Q1 - 31.8%, Q2 - 30.6%, Q3 - 30.7%, Q4 - 30.1%

2018:

Q1 - 31.7%, Q2 - 30.5%, Q3 - 31.1%, Q4 - 30.7%

Question 2 - The rejected recycling rate varies between 4% and 6% each month for 2016 through to 2018 - and the percentage sent to landfill or energy recovery also varies each month - for example the rejected recycling rate for March 2019 was 4.13% a total of 19.99 tonnes, and of this figure, 95.23% went for energy recovery and 4.77% went to landfill. In April 2017 the total recycling collected was 443.1 tonnes - the rejected recycling rate was 4.74% a total of 18.3 tonnes - 82.15% went for energy recovery and 17.85% went to land fill.

The main items that get rejected are black plastic waste/sacks, ceramics and Pyrex, polystyrene, food, garden waste, wood, sand/building materials, textiles, all of which should not be placed in the recycling containers. The total amount of recycling also varies each month, and can be between 400-700 tonnes, the increase is usually around December and January due to Christmas.

Question 3:

a. Garden waste collections - fortnightly

b. Recyclable waste collections - weekly and fortnightly

c. Household waste collections - weekly and fortnightly