A crucial project to find ways to boost flats recycling in London found that the recycling rate from 12 estates surveyed was just 10.7%, delegates to the London Conference were told this week. Some sites also had high levels of contamination of recyclables.
The study is trying to improve recycling by studying 12 Peabody flats housing sites in London (picture: Shutterstock)
The importance of driving up flats recycling was spelt out to conference delegates by Anthony Buchan, head of programme at Resource London. The organisation is supported by the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) working with WRAP.
Mr Buchan, who chaired a session on ‘Improving recycling in flats”, said it was important to find ways of increasing recycling in London, especially because of the high number of flats in the capital which is also increasing and that the organisation was supporting a project to try and find answers.
Research project
Gemma Scott, local authority support manager at LWARB explained that the project was running at 12 flat developments run by the Peabody Trust with the support of six councils and had found the 10.7% recycling figure on average. The project is aimed at finding out why recycling rates were low and what could be done to help improve them.
Full findings of the project will be available this summer. She explained that the project had the aim of approaching the situation “from the point of the view of residents”.
Ms Scott warned that with flats currently recycling 50% less than low rise properties, and with flats already accounting for 37% of London’s housing stock with the figure to rise to 50%, for recycling there is a “massive challenge”.
Gemma Scott (left) expects to publish the full report findings later this year
The estate projects involved were mixed types of developments and a number of problems were found. These included that there were not sufficient collections or capacity for some of the materials which were wanted for recycling.
And, it was found that contamination levels of recycling were high, averaging at 30.7%, “with some much higher”.
‘Small kitchens’
The work is being carried out with the Revealing Reality research group and Becky Rowe from the organisation went into detail on what had been found.
She highlighted how small kitchens in the flats often made organisation and storage of recycling “really difficult although people were creative about using storage space. This meant that many didn’t have room for a specific recycling bin.”
And, she added that overall people were still guessing at what could be recycled.
One outcome of the work was the idea that in contrast to past beliefs, a transient population might be a good thing. Past events have heard that this causes problems as residents are confused when they move to a new area.
Becky Rowe spoke of how transient populations could be an ‘opportunity’
However, Ms Rowe said that “transient populations can be an opportunity for encouraging people to change as the research had found that when someone moves it is an opportunity for them to reappraise recycling.
Other areas the project is looking at is “the exit routes from the flats and the issue of giving residents another object to carry.”
She also pointed out how residents “have no Plan B if recycling is interrupted, for example if the recycling wheeled bin is full or contaminated. What do you do? They may be forced to throw the waste into the recycling bin and vice versa if the waste bin is full”.
Minimum standards
Gemma Scott explained some of the successful work implemented as a result of the research which including the transformation of “ramshackle” waste and recycling areas which had not been looked after. “All 12 estates have been brought up to a minimum set of standards.”
Clearer signage has been introduced, residents have been given recycling information packs including a roll of 15 plastic carrier bags to carry recycling in and collections are being carried out to prevent overflowing bins.
And, Ms Scott explained that residents did need encouragement for recycling. “The research found that the residents felt that no-one cared about their recycling”.
More information is available at https://resourcelondon.org/
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
