Compositional Waste Analysis and Future Potential for the Recycling System (Part 2)

Albion Environmental Ltd. can help you to estimate the future potential for your recycling system, carrying out Compositional Waste Analysis of Residual Waste. The main purposes of the analysis are:

• Provide details of the quantity of each material type going to the residual bin collection system operated by the Council.
• Try and identify the quantity of waste which could be recycled from the residual collection.

METHODOLOGY

The analysis would be conducted in accordance with the Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) Guidance (Version 1.3 July 17th 2013):

• Sample sizes were reduced to 20.
• In order to further improve the statistical accuracy of the analysis, socio-economic profiling can be used and the 100 bin sample can be weighted to represent differing ACORN classifications for the Council area. A sample of 20 households can be selected from each ACORN group.

DATA ANALYSIS

In this second instalment, it will be revised the analysis of the data by waste subcategories. This section shows a detailed breakdown of the weights & volumes for the waste sub-categories allocated to each ACORN group.

Paper and card: please see below the charts for this section. ‘Non-recyclable paper’ is by far the largest fraction of waste per weight. ACORN category 1 is responsible for considerably more of this waste than the other ACORN groups. There are also significant quantities of blue bin recyclable fractions throughout the ACORN groups.

Mixed metals: please see below the charts for this section. There are considerable amounts of blue bin recyclable materials across all ACORN groups. ‘Aluminium packaging’ was heavily contaminated with organic materials.

Mixed plastics: please see below the charts for this section. There are considerable quantities of blue bin recyclable materials throughout all of the ACORN groups. ‘Dense plastic packaging’ which largely consists of food packaging, however, much of this material had not been cleaned and was contaminated with organic materials.

Plastic film: please see below the charts for this section. \’Plastic film\’ consists of ‘Other plastic film’ which is mainly food packaging and wrappers. Much of the plastic film was heavily contaminated with organic material which leads to a large increase in the weight. The volumes of the plastic film category are also difficult to estimate due to the amount of compaction possible, i.e. volumes during the analysis will be exaggerated because the waste is being picked apart. Plastic film is not currently recycled by the Council.

In following instalments the analysis of residual waste bins will be studied.

ALBION ENVIRONMENTAL IS WILLING TO HELP YOU

Please feel free to contact us to resolve any queries in relation to Compositional Analysis of Residual Waste. Our experienced staff will be here to help and estimate the potentialities that your current recycling system has.