AN ISLAND-wide kerbside recycling scheme could cost anything between £600,000 and £1.5m. a year. Public Services is considering a report by consultant Integrated Skills Ltd that has analysed the best way forward on the recycling front.
ISL has outlined costings and results for 14 scenarios that vary depending on the materials collected, the type of vehicles used and the participation of the local population. An island-wide system was also found to be far more favourable than one operated on a parish basis.
But the report concludes that it will not be possible to reach the States’ target of 50% recycling by 2010 just with the collection of dry recyclables from households. That would require the collection of organic waste, it states, which poses further difficulties for any strategy.
‘We are recommending that an island-wide contract for kerbside collection would be the way forward,’ said ISL director Matt Polson (pictured). ‘We believe that if there are going to be recommendations on the quality of recyclables coming in, having individual contracts for each parish would make it difficult to measure that.
‘And if you have targets to meet, you are potentially trying to do that from 10 contracts rather than one that is centrally based.
‘We worked out that it would cost twice as much to do a parish-based system of kerbside collection.’
However, he warned that the reaction from most parishes and contractors to the idea had so far been quite negative.
Figures suggest that collection of dry recyclables would only increase the island’s rate from its current 31.2% to just over 46%.
If the recycling of green waste was included in current figures, then the island would recycle 36.5% of its rubbish.
ISL’s survey was done on an estimation of 100% coverage. It found that the maximum amount of household recycling that could be done in the island was 86%. The maximum that could be achieved through kerbside was 74%.
The report also recommended weekly collection rather than fortnightly. Its research of areas that collect every two weeks found that the participation was only 90% of the rate in areas with a weekly service.
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4 Article Comments
All refuse disposal/kerbside recycling should be carried out on an island basis - the douzaines should realise this and think outside their parish mentality.
Its poor value to procure and operate waste disposal contracts on a parish basis.
Colour me confused - the town we moved to from Guernsey a couple of years ago, trialed a kerbside recycling programme shortly after we arrived - including organics, plastics and paper/card products. They announced a net saving of £20,000 in the first quarter alone, and on that basis made the programme permanent. Every quarter the savings increase and are being passed on to us as residents in lower rates. How on earth is it going to cost so much in Guernsey????
As an add on question, how much of the anticipated cost will be spent on consultants’ reports before anything is actually implemented???
We simply do not need this.
Another example of us trying to be too green.
I’m not happy about this additional waste disposal/recycling cost.
We have already reduced our levels of waste by a huge amount. Enough is enough. Times are tough. Money is tight. We should not be kissing money goodbye on projects like this. Do Public Services think we are an island of charitable millionaires?