case studies
If your Local Authority has been involved in a successful project, please let us know and we will include you on this webpage.
Simply send us around 200 words describing your achievements and a picture if possible to recycle-more@valpak.co.uk.
Click on the links below to read the case studies:
Sheffield City Council
Smart, new banks are giving a huge boost to recycling across the country.
Colourful and user-friendly for both the public and collectors, the rescape™ banks are revolutionising recycling. Local authorities who have introduced them have reported extremely positive customer feedback, with recycling rates doubling in some cases.
The reason is simple - the public really like them. Users respond to their brighter, cleaner, more appealing look and so are far more inclined to use them. Lighting and information panels, for authorities to communicate messages to the public are just two of the available options to encourage higher usage.
The modular banks can be custom-built in a range of sizes and colours to fit in with space needs and existing street furniture, and the rescape design allows for the facilities to be branded with national or local recycling logos. The internal containers can be easily transported to a standard collection vehicle, therefore improving access options and helping to ensure the safety of pedestrians
Denbighshire Country Council was one of the first to install rescape™ banks around Rhyl. Councillor Eryl Williams said: "We believe the rescape banks really make a statement and we are sure their chic design will encourage people to recycle more. As well as being attractive to look at, they are easy for the public to use and safe and practical for collectors."
Councilor Harry Harpham of Sheffield City Council said: "We chose these banks particularly for their robust, modern design and simple functionality. In urban areas like ours recycling can be a real challenge. We hope this eye catching facility will encourage members of the public to think twice about what happens to their rubbish and help us continue increasing recycling rates in the city."
Other Local authorities including, Glasgow, Canterbury and Camden have also recently installed rescape™ recycling banks, which have been pioneered by Valpak, are manufactured by SMF International and supplied to Local Authorities by Egbert H Taylor.
You can see what the range of banks look like by clicking www.rescape.org and for further information contact rescape@valpak.co.uk
Northampton Borough Council
Double success for Northampton's recycling and street care services.
Northampton Borough Council was invited to the British Library in London on 19 October to speak at a seminar organised by White Young Green, environmental consultants about increasing recycling rates.
Northampton Borough Council was asked to speak at the national event due to the remarkable success of its recycling scheme, which was implemented in March 2003.
Paul Mocroft, Community Environment Development Officer, a guest speaker at the seminar on behalf of Northampton Borough Council said: "It is great that all the hard work undertaken by the recycling team, and of course the residents of Northampton, has been recognised in this way. Northampton is now accepted as being one of the best performing urban authorities when it comes to recycling performance.
The success of Northampton's recycling is evident in the results of the recently conducted doorstepping campaign aimed at increasing awareness and participation of the kerbside recycling scheme.
In August and September a team of ten doorsteppers spoke to over 8,400 borough residents. The doorsteppers were there to provide help and advice to residents and help them get more information about the scheme and what items can be recycled.
Each resident was given a leaflet, which had further information about recycling and street care services. The leaflet had a response card for people to return with feedback on the council's services.
The results received back by Northampton Borough Council were very pleasing. A massive 85% of people said they were satisfied with both the waste and recycling collections.
Ken Hall, Street Care Services Manager at Northampton Borough Council said: "It is great to see that the improvements and service changes introduced by us over the last eighteen months are reflected in increased satisfaction from the public."
Glasgow City Council
A recycling initiative in Scotland is being extended thanks to its success.
Glasgow Recycle, a scheme to encourage schools to recycle their waste, is a partnership project between Glasgow City Council, The Wise Group, and Valpak, the UK's leading Producer Responsibility scheme.
The scheme supplies free collections of paper, cans and plastic bottles to schools, and teachers are also provided with education packs and fun recycling workshops, to encourage young people to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. Valpak's consumer recycling brand, recycle-more, has also supplied children with magnets to separate steel from aluminium, and recycled products to help pupils' understanding of recycling.
The project aims to spread the recycling message to households, as children encourage their family members to recycle at home.
Currently operating in 29 Glasgow schools, the project has been so successful that it will be rolled out to all Glasgow education establishments, from nurseries to universities, over the next 18 months.
The announcement of the scheme's extension was made recently at St Mirin's Primary School in Glasgow, where pupils have save 34 trees by recycling two tonnes of paper over the course of a school year. Local Councillor Alan Stewart commented: "This demonstrates the importance of thinking global and acting local."
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead teamed up with Valpak, the UK's leading Producer Responsibility scheme to get recycling on the road for residents.
According to the agreement, Valpak buys 150 tonnes of mixed glass from the Borough every month. The cullet is reprocessed as aggregates for road building, and can then be purchased back by the local authority at a reduced rate, for use in local road building schemes.
The benefits to both parties are evident. For Valpak, this guarantees a source of waste glass, and boosts recycling levels. For the Royal Borough, there is the option of reducing road building costs, while potentially increasing recycling levels.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has just finished installing over 80 new recycling banks at 40 public recycling centres, so that residents can throw away mixed glass, rather than segregating their bottles.
Cllr Simon Werner, of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead commented: "Research shows that glass recycling levels increase if there are mixed collections - and the results of our first three months shows an encouraging upward trend, which we are confident will continue as more and more local people learn about the arrangements."
Recently released figures show that 408 tonnes of glass were collected from public bring sites in Windsor and Maidenhead during the first three months of the scheme compared to 393 tonnes during the same period last year.
The Peterborough Cell
The Peterborough Cell is driving glass recycling forward in East Anglia thanks to the delivery of two new recycling vehicles, used to collect glass on a monthly basis from 50,000 residents in East Anglia.
The Peterborough Cell, a partnership between seven local authorities in East Anglia, is funded through Shanks First, with money from Shanks Waste Services under the Landfill Tax Credit scheme, plus third party funding from Valpak, the UK's leading Producer Responsibility scheme. The Cell won over £1m from DEFRA's Waste Minimisation Fund last year to offer kerbside glass collections to residents in East Northamptonshire, Northampton, Peterborough, South Holland and South Kesteven, and the new vehicles have been purchased with part of this funding.
The vehicles are expected to collect up to 100 tonnes a month of mixed-colour glass from 10,000 residents in each of the Local Authority areas. The glass will be brokered by Valpak and recycled into replacements for aggregates in road building.
Jacqui Warren, acting Cell Co-ordinator commented, "This is a truly unique scheme, illustrating the benefits of collaborative working between Local Authorities and private companies. It really is going to be very interesting monitoring this scheme and using up to date technology for research purposes. Hopefully the scheme will pave the way forward for both high performing and low performing authorities looking for new innovative ways to reach their recycling targets."
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