Moray's Waste Audit Highlights Recycling Possibilities
In summer 2011, the Waste Monitoring Team of The Moray Council carried out their annual domestic waste audit from households across Moray. The audit involved sorting through the contents of bins from a random 2% sample of properties from collection routes over 5 days, segregating the waste into 47 different categories. While it was not a particularly pleasant task for the team, it is a very important task, as the results can be used to highlight problems and trends, allowing the waste section to see where improvements or changes might be suitable for the current recycling service.
The audit covered rural properties on 2 days and urban properties on 3 days. The average weight of the rural waste bin was 18.8kg per week compared to 7.35kg per week for the urban bin. This was to be expected as the rural areas audited were not on the kerbside recycling scheme. Including recycling, the overall weight of waste produced by urban households was 20.75kg. Surprisingly the heaviest proportion of rural bins was that of garden waste, at just over 25% of the total weight, due to the presence of grass cuttings and plants. This was followed by organic kitchen waste which made up over 18% of the average bin, or a staggering 3.5kg of food waste per household per week!
It was disappointing to find that 13% of the average urban bin was made up of recyclable paper, glass and cans, materials which could easily have been recycled using the blue and orange boxes. Clearly, there is scope for some householders in urban areas to increase the amount of material that they currently presenting for recycling. Importantly, 36% was organic kitchen waste. Since the audit was carried out, food waste collections have been introduced to those properties on the kerbside recycling scheme, whereby food waste is placed in the garden waste bin. With food waste representing the largest proportion of the average urban bin by far, this new service should significantly reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill.
Rural bins contained a high percentage of recyclable paper, glass and cans at 20%, although this was almost expected due to the lack of kerbside recycling facilities available. Organic garden waste, food waste and plastic bottles accounted for another 46%.
A major improvement to recycling service provision in Moray will be the introduction of kerbside recycling to all properties across the county which do not currently receive the service. This will start being implemented at the end of October this year and will comprise a brown bin for garden and food waste, a 140ltr blue bin for paper and card, a 140ltr purple bin for cans and plastic bottles and an orange box for glass. If used to their full potential, it should be possible for rural residents to recycle an incredible 66% of their current waste, well above Moray’s current recycling rate of around 40%.
The opportunity is there for the rural residents of Moray to lead the way in recycling, and it will be interesting to see how well they are doing when the next waste audit is carried out next year!