Bromley's Composting food waste trial

[stone-penge]

Any one else involved in the trial? Working really well so far, The (reduced) volume of waste now going into the traditional "land fill' bin in my household is quite marked.What I can't understand is why they are accepting more types of 'plastic ' waste i.e. food trays etc but the plastic collection is the only one of the recycle collection that is still fortnightly (along with the traditional collection now going to a fortnightly collection)Seems odd to collect more waste in the plastics box, but not have it collected weekly as the paper box now is, when no more paper waste is added.
I also wonder really how green it is to collect the food waste and turn it into compost by the use of,presumably fossil fuel fired furnaces.

SP

[bensonby]

what sorts of food waste are they taking?


On a similar note, I read that Lewisham is planning to get rid of our full-size (grey) bins to replace them with half sized ones.

Personally it seems a good idea; since we have had a decent recycling collection the amount we throw away is a tiny proportion of what it was before. I've always been impressed wsith the collection service
Lewisham provides - especially going by horror stories from other boroughs and parts of hte country.

The only slightly odd thing about bin collections is that the bin they provide you with bears no relation to the number of people that live in your household.

[Konqi]

do you crush your cans, plastic bottles at all? Helps get more in your green box.

[stone-penge]

They take all food waste, bones, the lot. Crushing tins and bottles helps but why increase the paper collection from once a fortnight to once a week when the metal & plastic is the box that now has more in it?

[Cllr John Getgood]

Sorry, I've been away for a few days so did not notice this post. Not that I know the answer but Bromley had their waste services information caravan at Penge East on Friday. I'll ask the waste team if they have any information and post again later this week. Overall though, the trial is going very well.

Cllr John Getgood
Penge & Cator

[Cllr John Getgood]

What I can't understand is why they are accepting more types of 'plastic ' waste i.e. food trays etc but the plastic collection is the only one of the recycle collection that is still fortnightly (along with the traditional collection now going to a fortnightly collection)Seems odd to collect more waste in the plastics box, but not have it collected weekly as the paper box now is, when no more paper waste is added.
SP

Sorry for the delay in replying, it took me a while to get through to the right person. But here's the answer:

"We are now picking up the food waste weekly, but that only totals around 3 tonnes of waste per day. To maximise vehicle efficiency (and to keep costs down), we are thus using a split bodied vehicle to collect the paper in the same vehicle.

We thus had the opportunity to increase the frequency of either paper or green box material (glass/cans/plastics) from fortnightly to weekly. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do both without creating additional costs.

We chose paper for three reasons.

Firstly, we carried out a waste analysis, which showed that even those who recycle still have a high percentage of paper in their refuse. This was higher than the percentage of any of the green box material. It thus seems sensible to help recycle more paper, both to increase the recycling rate and to reduce the volume of refuse.

Secondly, although the tonnage of paper is higher than the green box material, the volume is significantly less. We can thus be confident that the one vehicle can cope with both food waste and paper. The high volume of green box material would make this difficult to achieve.

Finally, the paper is of a higher value. In the trial areas, the volume of paper has increased by over 30% due to the change from fortnightly to weekly collection. The income from the paper helps subsidise the cost of the extra resources required for the trial.

We do appreciate that the volume of green box material will increase, particularly now that we can accept the wider mix of plastics. We will continue to look for ways to increase the recycling frequency; in the meantime, we are more than happy to provide residents with additional green boxes."

Hope that is helpful.

Cllr John Getgood
Penge & Cator

[stone-penge]

Thanks Cllr
Got another gripe but a possible solution!
The paper bags supplied tend to become saturated and on one unhappy occasion shead its contents across my kitchen floor!
However i have just come back from a trip to Devon where the council supply
( at a small cost) bags made from plant material (Corn starch) that are 100% compostable and have all the water resistant qualities of an plastic bag



Any chance of something similar here?

[Cllr John Getgood]

Hi Stone-penge, My brother's scheme in Bedfordshire also uses the corn starch bags (provided for free). I did ask officers about them but have forgotten the reply. However, an email is on its way to the appropriate desk now and I shall post the reply as soon as I have it.

Cllr John Getgood
Penge & Cator
www.pengeandcatorcouncillors.co.uk

[Willy]

maybe I'm missing something but why do you need bags? Can't you carry the kitchen caddy outside to the food watse bin and empty it? The whole point of this is to be more environmentally friendly and adding to pollution by wasting energy to produce a bag solely to throw food away is crazy.

[stone-penge]

maybe I'm missing something but why do you need bags? Can't you carry the kitchen caddy outside to the food watse bin and empty it? The whole point of this is to be more environmentally friendly and adding to pollution by wasting energy to produce a bag solely to throw food away is crazy.

How much energy is it going to create having to wash out the caddy and outside container every time it becomes soiled with decomposing food and maggots?
BTW I'm not convinced the sole purpose of the project is to be environmentaly friendly but rather reduce the amount of land fill (tax) the borough has to pay. At the moment the compost is produced by burning or heating the food waste in a furnace:and its not a combined Heat and Power plant either.
I don't think a corn starch bag is going to tip the scales

[Willy]

I'm assuming you wash your pots, pans, etc, so just wash up the caddy at the same time.

The other point to consider is that the corn starch bags are not the answer, they leak water/liquid pretty quickly so you would still have to wash out the caddy.

[stone-penge]

right on! Must dig out my hair shirt today...

[Willy]

..made out of your own hair to reduce transport costs I hope!

[Cllr John Getgood]

Why not corn-starch bags? Hot from the Bromley press:
The main reason is entirely practical. The cornstarch bags look (and feel) very similar to the type of thin plastic bags supermarkets provide for vegetables and the like. Since we can't afford to provide an unlimited supply of free bags, we were concerned that residents might supplement our supply with 'free' ones, causing contamination problems at the processing plant.

We also felt that residents might prefer the slightly absorbent paper sacks. Whilst they can get soggy, they do at least help make 'runny' waste less unpleasant to deal with.

We have noted that many residents are now supplementing our free supply of bags with cornstarch bags purchased from Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose. We have checked a selection of our collections, and it appears that residents are almost all using 'proper' bags, so I am pleased to say our concerns haven't proven to be the case.

We are planning to stick to the paper sacks for now, mostly as our feedback suggests residents are happy with them. However, if residents wish to purchase additional cornstarch bags, we will happily collect them as well.

regards,

Cllr John Getgood
Pemge & Cator
www.pengeandcatorcouncillors.co.uk