Recycling is one of my core interests, and so I was very pleased to take up the offer to visit the Yorwaste facilities today (2nd July) which take York’s waste to answer a number of questions that residents had put to me as newly appointed Executive Member for Waste, and as local councillor for Westfield. I went with Cllr Ann Reid who will be joining the Shareholder Board for Yorwaste on behalf of the city’s residents.

Key Questions –

What happens to recycling that gets mixed in the back of a wagon when it is collected ?

What has been done at Harewood Whin to reduce the risk of smouldering piles of compost, and couldn’t there be more done to make a compost rather than ‘soil conditioner’ ?

What is happening to improve the recycling of items take to the household waste recycling centres ?

What happens to recycling which is mixed (‘comingled’ in recycling jargon) by being thrown together in the back of the same wagon ? Well it goes to Seamer Carr (near Scarborough) via Hessay where it is bulked up so that individual full wagons don’t need to make a 50+ mile round trip. The cause for this has been the time when some council vehicles are off the road on repair – not an ideal way to make a processing choice, and not something that the council had communicated clearly with residents. A dedicated team of people at Seamer Carr separate the waste with large equipment. The glass bottles are first broken up and sifted from the waste which then goes through mechanical steps to separate iron based metals (magnets) and aluminium ( eddy currents) plastic bottles , paper and card, other items. There is some handpicking to separate out the larger items. (see photos below)

 

Verdict : I am pleased to be able to verify the process and to help allay fears that the recycling which had been separated by York residents did not end up in landfill. But there is a cost to York tax payers for having this recycling transported and processed and so it confirms the basis for my request, after being appointed, to officers to prepare a business plan to get new vehicles to enable separated waste to be collected in all parts of the city (these vehicles tend to operate in the narrower streets). This report will be coming forward soon so that the investment can be made.  York residents understand that separating the waste is important so that there is good quality material to re-use this is important to make sure that our waste gets the greatest value (which comes back to York residents).

Bottles – these are baled at Hessay however, the reuse of this material has been impacted by the low price of crude oil with a much greater incentive for companies to use 100% raw material rather than a blend with recycled plastic. This has compounded the issue that whilst some plastics have ‘can be recycled’ stamped onto them they are a different type to bottles and so the ability for a recycled product to be made is limited. There should be more pressure on retailers to take responsibility for materials which cannot be readily re-used which they put into the waste stream.

Compost – following the time when a large amount of compost caught alight and created a smoke cloud over the west of the city http://www.yorwaste.co.uk/news/update-on-compost-fire/  the advice of the Environment Agency has been followed.  Batches are processed after a shorter wait and temperatures at the core of the pile are taken frequently. Managers had been very co-operative with me as a ward councillor at the time, and I was glad to see these changes first hand.

Compost is available for free to residents each Sunday until 20^th September (except bank holiday weekends) opening times from 8.00am to 1.00pm for you to collect free compost

https://www.york.gov.uk/info/20010/waste_and_recycling/591/free_compost_for_residents

The compost from Harewood Whin is being processed to achieve Pas 100 certification so that it is a more valuable compost product  – as Yorwaste is part owned by City of York Council then this will be of benefit to council tax payers.

http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/bsi-pas-100-producing-quality-compost

Many thanks to all of the Yorwaste Staff who helped to make this day informative.

 

Cllr Andrew Waller