Biffa to launch WEEE collections
12 December 2011
Municipal services contractor Biffa is introducing collections of small household WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) for three of its local authority clients.
The service additions are the result of Biffa’s successful application to the Valpak Local Project Fund administered by BIS. Grants of £30,000 will be available from April 2012 for Woking, Surrey Heath and Swale Borough Councils.
Biffa is covering the start-up costs for the December start of Woking’s WEEE collections as the council was keen to launch the new service before the official funding came through.
Typically, small household WEEE comprises kitchen, beauty and audio-visual items, as long as they are powered by battery or mains electricity.
In Woking, residents can put any small WEEE in a carrier bag and leave it next to their recycling or refuse containers on the relevant collection day. Crews collect the bags and place them in under-body cages fitted to collection vehicles.
The collected WEEE is then offloaded into a skip or clip-top drum and transported to East Sussex for processing by authorised WEEE recycler MDJ Light Bros. Items are shredded and mechanically separated into component materials such as plastics, ferrous and non-ferrous metals for further reprocessing and remanufacture.
Officers at Woking Borough Council estimate that the new service could collect between 200 and 350 tonnes of WEEE annually, making an important contribution to the borough’s effort to divert more waste from landfill through improved recycling. This could save around £20,000 in landfill tax alone (calculated at the current landfill tax rate of £56 per tonne).
Surrey Heath and Swale Borough Councils are working with Biffa managers to design WEEE collection services that best suit their particular local needs.
Biffa municipal development director Pete Dickson said the small WEEE initiative was ‘typical of Biffa’s desire and ability to add value to its collection services’. He commented: “Local authorities have two mantras at the moment – to save money and to protect service quality. By identifying and tapping into this funding, Biffa will have helped this trio of clients to do exactly that.”
Councillor Beryl Hunwicks, portfolio holder for waste and recycling at Woking, said: “WEEE is one of the fastest growing waste streams, and we need to ensure it doesn’t go to landfill. That would be a tremendous waste of WEEE’s valuable materials, which can be reused, recycled and remanufactured.
“This new collection scheme will further enhance the council’s successful recycling service, and support our mission to push the recycling rate from the current 54% to over 60%.”
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