Pilot scheme could launch to help encourage more recycling

A new scheme is being considered to help improve recycling rates across Devon which involves refuse crews recording how individual households recycle.

This data would then allow councils to communicate with residents who appear not to recycle or who are struggling with the system.
It’s likely if the new trial gets off the ground, that it would be rolled out in Teignbridge first.
This week, the Devon authorities strategic waste committee, which covers all of Devon’s eight district councils, the county council and Torbay Council, heard that a contract for waste and recycling advisers ends this Friday, and so £123,000 of funding is available for a new strategy.
While most of this will go towards developing and rolling out the pilot, £30,000 will be used for Devon County Council’s ‘monster bin project’, which attends school assemblies to teach children about food recycling and hand out food caddies.
Although members of the committee broadly supported the proposed pilot, some feared that refuse crews already had a difficult enough job without having to input extra data into a system.
Officers said the system would be extremely simple, and would track the route crews were on, meaning that any required information that needed to be submitted into the system would be easy to do.
Chris Braines, head of environmental services at Teignbridge Council, said a digital system where crews could input data would be far more efficient than previous strategies.
“We previously had funding to employ one person to do the job of monitoring how well households were recycling, but with 20 collection rounds in Teignbridge alone, by the time that person has been on each of those three times to assess any trends, it’s quite difficult and time consuming,” he said.
“One person is a drop in the ocean but if we can engage the collection crews we can easily capture data.”
Mr Braines said that recycling consultants WRAP were able to help set the system up and that a recent report by the company had shown a “clear and concerning trend” that the confidence in recycling is declining.
“An erosion of confidence means decreased feelings about recycling,” he added.
“We are hoping to build off that study and be able to categorise people in terms of attitude and work out what would motivate them to recycle more.”
Cllr Geoff Jung (Liberal Democrat, Woodbury and Lympstone), who sits on East Devon District Council, had reservations about the proposed new system.
“It sounds like a challenge for crews to enter information into a system,” he said.
“And there are issues such as the fact some people might not use food waste bins because they use a composter, so we need to make sure we’re praising those people and not criticising them.”
Mr Braines said there was the possibility of incentives for crews who were willing to help, such as adding a free extra hour onto their timesheet so they were paid more.