Types of Collections Used for Recycling Including Kerbside Collection Options

Local authorities worldwide are striving to improve their recycling rates. The rates of recycling and waste diversion away from landfill being achieved, have been shown to be much improved by the choice of collection system, and the variety of boxes and bins provided for disposal of the municipal waste generated by every household.

In this article we discuss the different types of collection systems which can be adopted.

Recyclables

For recyclables collected from people's homes, there are a variety of possible collection options which usually will fall within the following definitions, each of which require different supporting infrastructure to process the collected recyclables:

Single Material Collections

The local authority will supply a single container - or the household is asked to supply a container such as a plastic carrier bag - for the collection of specific materials. This material may be appropriate for bulking and direct sale to a reprocessor without further sorting, or some limited mechanical sorting may be used to refine the material quality. This system was more popular when recycling systems were first introduced and when many local authorities collected only one material, typically paper.  However, as recycling schemes have expanded some authorities have chosen to provide a separate collection of a single material where it has not been feasible to add this material to their multi-material collection scheme, for example, glass.

Co-mingled Collections

The term co-mingled means that all recyclable materials targeted by the collection scheme are placed in the same container (box, sack or wheeled bin) by the householder and are collected (co-mingled) in a single compartment vehicle and delivered to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for sorting.

Some authorities operate two stream collections whereby households are provided with one or more containers into which specified mixed recyclables are placed for regular collection - either the glass or the paper can be kept separate from the other materials.

These materials are collected in two compartment vehicles in order to keep the glass or the paper separate and are delivered to a MRF for sorting  In some schemes, households are asked to provide one of their own containers, such as a plastic carrier bag for collection of paper.

This type of collection system requires a specialist facility to sort the recyclables into separate material types and to prepare them for sale to re-processors. This is known as a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) or is sometimes referred to as a Materials Recycling Facility.

Kerbside Sorting Collections

As with co-mingled collections a container is provided to householders for the targeted recyclables which are then sorted into constituent materials at the kerbside (i.e. from the box outside the household) by the operatives of a specialist collection vehicle. This is a more labour intensive process in terms of the collection operation compared with a co-mingled collection scheme. However, generally a MRF is not required and it has benefits in terms of ensuring that a higher quality of material is usually collected.

Mixed Waste Collections

Recyclables may also be extracted from the mixed MSW (normal residual or 'black bag' waste) through separation and treatment processes.

These types of systems are described later in this guide and include Mechanical Biological Treatment and Mechanical Heat Treatment.

The amount of recyclables extracted from these systems is likely to be limited and of a lower quality (in most instances) than recyclables collected through dedicated source segregated collection systems.  However, combined with some form of source segregated collection system, the additional materials recovered from mixed wastes can substantially enhance overall recycling rates.

Other pages you may find interesting are:

Recycling Metal
Tyre Recycling