Alternate weekly collection conference (July 7, 2008)

New research by Ipsos Mori and case study experiences illuminated this controversial policy area

Increasingly councils are considering the possibility of collecting residual household waste every two weeks. As recycling rates are pushed higher, with separate collection systems being rolled out for recyclables, the volume of residual waste declines. Where local authorities introduce collection of food and garden waste, the nature and arisings of the remaining garbage become ever more suited to less frequent collection.

Some waste collection authorities have found AWC systems work well, are acceptable to residents and offer economic and environmental benefits. Elsewhere, there is vigorous opposition to what is portrayed in the media as an invidious, penny-pinching reduction in services. Residents become hostile, some are prepared to pay private sector entrepreneurs for restoration of the missing week's collection.

This one day event by the Resource Recovery Forum and Ipsos Mori took a detailed look at the differing attitudes towards the fortnightly collection of residual waste, including:

• What makes AWC work well
• What residents really believe about necessary service provision
• How opposition to AWC can be assuaged
• How a local authority can implement effective, workable AWC schemes

The audience heard from experts in the field, with case studies from local authorities. There were opportunities to discuss all relevant issues, meet with policy-makers, practitioners and advisers to discuss the merits and potential pitfalls of going down the path of fortnightly waste collection.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• Keynote – Is AWC an issue? Dominic Hogg, Director, Eunomia (0.5 MB)
• AWC - Ipsos MORI survey data & conclusions - Phil Downing, Head of Environmental
  Research, Ipsos MORI (0.8 MB)
• AWC - status report and interpretation - John Twitchen, Director, Sauce Consultancy (1.1 MB)
• Effectiveness of alternate weekly collections - Sue Reed, ROTATE Adviser, WRAP (0.6 MB)
• Successfully delivering AWC - core messages & practices? - Adam Read, Technical Director, Hyder Consulting (8.5 MB)
• Redditch Council - an analysis - Bob Pocock, Director, MEL Research (4 MB)
• Staffordshire Moorlands Council - Craig Hatton, Head of Environmental Services, Staffordshire Moorlands Council (0.9 MB)
• Bristol City Council - Sean Spencer-Wort, - Waste Recycling and Minimisation Officer, Bristol City Council (0.7 MB)
• Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames - Jim Brennan & John Haynes, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (0.5 MB)
• AWC - a service reduction? - Mark Wallace, Campaign Director, TaxPayers’ Alliance (no slides used)
• Milton Keynes Council - Andy Hudson, Chief Waste Management Engineer, Milton Keynes Council (3.5 MB)
• Somerset SORTS IT with weekly food waste - Dave Mansell, Strategy & Communications Team Leader, Somerset Waste Partnership (1.7 MB)
• Compendium (All the above, excluding Adam Read’s slides) (5.3 MB)
• RRF Briefing note – four pages on AWC trends in UK (2 MB)