EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Clacksfirst BID and Alloa Town Centre BID, with the assistance of Zero Waste Scotland funding, undertook a joint project; The Big BID Recycle, in order to educate a significant number of businesses in their area on their responsibilities relating to the forth coming Waste (Scotland) 2012 regulations and to reduce the volume of recyclables going to landfill. KEY OBJECTIVES Cost Saving Environmental Impact Competitive Advantage Social Impact YOUR CONTRIBUTION HAS SAVED...
38.8t of cardboard 2.8t of plastic 13.8t of paper 2t of cans & metals
In addition to the diversion from landfill achievements, businesses have been engaged through a wide range of marketing and communications activates including face-to-face visits, media communications, mail shots and branding thus ensuring that the BID members are aware of the forth coming requirements of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012.
PROJECT OVERVIEW CONTRIBUTIONS
STAKEHOLDERS
Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) was seeking to support innovative solutions to increase small/medium size enterprise (SME) recycling in advance of changes to existing waste management regulations. Clacksfirst BID and Alloa Town Centre BID have approximately 450 members. These parties applied for joint funding on the basis that both BIDs could educate a significant number of businesses on the forthcoming regulation change and massively reduce the volume of recyclables going to landfill within one project. A condition of the application process was that the project, entitled The Big BID Recycle, should engage a social enterprise to partner. Alloa Community Enterprises (ACE) was identified as the perfect partner to carry out material collections, composition analysis and weights.
Clacksfirst BID representing industrial estates and business parks Alloa Town Centre BID representing businesses in Alloa Town Centre Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) ACE Recycling delivered the pilot through identifying the scale of both BIDs collective membership The BID Members were the main stakeholders as their engagement with the project was critical to its success.
WASTE REGULATION CHARGES The Scottish Government launched Scotland's Zero Waste Plan on the 9th June 2010. The Zero Waste Plan sets out the Scottish Government's vision for a zero waste society. This vision describes a Scotland where all waste is seen as a resource; waste is minimised; valuable resources are not disposed of in landfills; and most waste is sorted, leaving only limited amounts to be treated. The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 aim to implement the requirements of the Zero Waste Plan and require businesses to change the way they operate. The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 will necessitate businesses to conform to a range of new legal requirements in 2014 and 2016. A key requirement, which this project aims to address, is the need for all businesses to segregate, at source, all dry recyclable materials e.g. paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and metals, from any residual waste by 1st January 2014. These materials will then have to be collected separately for onward recycling. In addition, businesses involved in food manufacture, preparation or retail are required to separate food waste for recycling from 1st January 2014, unless they produce less than 50kg of food waste per week, in which case they have until 1st January 2016 to comply with the regulations. There will also be a ban on the non-domestic use of food waste disposal units where the ‘treated’ food is discharged into public sewers directly or indirectly.
PROJECT APPROACH MARKETING
PRE-COLLECTION SURVEY
Communication was key to launching the project, conveying information on the regulation changes and to building momentum towards recruiting a healthy number of businesses.
To determine the need for The Big BID Recycle and to accurately forecast potential demand for the project, a process of quantitative and qualitative research was undertaken with BID members.
This was achieved through a number of channels:
ZWS funding enabled the BIDs to employ a dedicated member of staff who visited approximately 400 businesses within both BID areas, asking them to complete our Waste Management Questionnaire. This personalised service resulted in 200 surveys being completed.
• Direct dialogue - Both BIDs in regular contact with all of their members • Recruitment of Frank Robertson as Project Lead visiting every business in the BIDs • Branding - Created The Big BID Recycle logo to be mounted on refuse trucks • Merchandise - Distributed branded desk top wheelie bin pen holders to every business • Direct mail shots regularly delivered to every member that could join the project • Strong support from local media outlets resulting in extensive media coverage • Email communication every week reminding members to present materials
SUCCESS MONITORING In order to identify the achievements of The Big BID Recycle project, the level of recyclable materials collected was closely monitored and recorded by the project lead traveling with the motor convoy during the collection process, allowing data to be captured relative to what businesses are presenting and volumes. Total volumes were double checked with the collection operatives and converted to approximate weights using average bag weights for each collected material.
WASTE COLLECTION Based on the results of the pre-collection survey, a tailored waste collection was implemented for the interested parties in both Clacksfirst BID and Alloa Town Centre BID. During the survey, the majority of businesses indicated that they were un-concerned with what the collection day would be. Following discussions with the waste management delivery partner, ACE Recycling, the most suitable day on which they had adequate resources to carry out the collection was Wednesday afternoon. As an added benefit, this collection time corresponded with a new cardboard pick-up in the Alloa Town Centre BID area which commenced approximately one month prior to the start of The Big BID Recycle project. As part of The Big BID Recycle project, the separate collection of paper, plastic and cans was introduced. Plastic recycle bags were distributed to all business by the Project Lead who informed businesses how to separate their waste. Extra bags could be obtained by contacting the BID Office or ACE Recycling. The collection process takes place on a Wednesday afternoon and involves two vehicles. The collection starts at 2pm in the business parks and industrial estates with one vehicle collecting cardboard and the other vehicle collecting separated recycle bags containing plastic, paper and cans. Alloa Town Centre collections take place from 4pm on the same day on a weekly basis.
CHARTING SUCCESS CLACKSFIRST BID The cardboard collection, as part of The Big BID recycle project, commenced within the Clacksfirst BID area on 1st Aug 2012 with paper, cans and plastic commencing on the 26th September 2012. A summary of the materials collected is presented in Figure 1.
Within the first eight months of The Big BID Recycle project, a total of approximately 24 tonnes of waste has been diverted from landfill in the Clacksfirst BID area including approximately:
17.3t
0.5t
6.2t
0.3t
of cardboard
of plastic
of paper
of cans & metals
Since the project commenced, Clacksfirst BID businesses have shown an appetite to engage with the project, which is reflected in the relatively consistent collection weights recorded over the course of the project. A significant reduction in materials collected was observed during late December/early January; however, this is likely to be attributed to business shut-down over the Christmas period. There is scope for further engagement with businesses; however, this should be facilitated through on-going marketing and communication.
ALLOA TOWN CENTRE BID The Big BID Recycle started in Alloa Town Centre on Wednesday 4th July 2013. Figure 2 illustrates the total weight of separated cans, paper and plastic materials collected from the start of the project until March 2013. In addition to this, an average of 500kg of cardboard waste was uplifted on each collection day. Businesses have responded well to The Big BID Recycle service with weekly collections uplifting between 140 and 160 bags of separated materials. There was a significant drop in the amount of recyclable materials presented during Christmas and New Year. As with the Clacksfirst BID initiative, this could be attributed to the number of businesses closed during the holiday period in addition to a change of collection day and time. Cardboard collection spiked in the middle of August and then fell back to within the parameters of the observed averages. This may have been due to the bad weather experienced a few weeks previously with businesses potentially storing bags and putting them out in better weather. Cans and metals presentation steadily increased as The Big BID Recycle progressed and now fluctuates between 30kg and 60kg per week. The main presentations are from the licensed trade who are putting out their alcoholic drink cans. One of the reasons for such large fluctuations can be attributed to one licensee collecting their cans and presenting them to ACE who give the licensee cash for the recyclable waste metal which is then cashed and donated to charity. In summary, within the first nine months of The Big BID Recycle project operating in the Alloa Town Centre BID area, approximately 33 tonnes of materials have been diverted from landfill for recycling. This includes:
21.5t
2.3t
7.6t
1.7t
of cardboard
of plastic
of paper
of cans & metals
CASE STUDY CETERIS (SCOTLAND) LTD. Ceteris (Scotland) Limited is a Clackmannanshire based commercial property owner with a significant office and industrial unit portfolio in the area. Two Ceteris business centres form part of Clacksfirst BID, The E-Centre and Alloa Business Centre with seventy businesses working from them. The Big BID Recycle project audited their landfill waste on three occasions during the pilot project with the aim of reducing the volume of recyclables going to landfill whilst also educating seventy businesses of the importance of recycling. From the initial audit it was estimated that 2,400kgs of recyclable materials (paper, card, plastic and cans) was going to landfill per year. The Big BID Recycle project embarked on face to face consultations with the businesses and located paper and can recycling bins in all communal spaces. The result was that following the third audit the estimated volume of recyclables going to landfill had reduced by 30% to 1,680kgs per year. Cardboard at both sites is now stored by Ceteris and uplifted weekly by The Big BID Recycle project. Three other Ceteris sites, hosting almost fifty businesses are also participating in the project.
TESTIMONIALS AND RESPONSE Whilst we, as a business endeavour to recycle what should be recycled, The Big BID Recycle project has been a huge success in helping and advising our tenants to separate their materials and reduce what is collectively being sent to landfill.
I am very pleased with the free service which the Alloa BID has provided. The Big BID Recycle is saving Buicks money as we no longer have to pay for special uplifts. Previously our general waste bin was packed to excess and now it’s never full. Thanks again.
We are very happy about the free uplift provided by Alloa Town Centre BID, before the scheme started we were using council bags which we had to purchase and were using three per week. Since the free collection started this has been reduced to one per week.
We are very happy with the recycling service provided by The Big BID Recycle project which is saving sending the recyclables to landfill and also saving Greggs money as we no longer need to buy bags from the council costing £35 per week. Keep up the good work!
We are using the BID recycling service and have found it not only to be a cost saving method of disposing of our waste but it has also reduced the man power spent removing waste from our premises.
We can't tell you how much we appreciate this service. For a small company like ours, a helping hand in achieving zero waste is a great help. It’s the tangible assistance that makes a difference.
Eva Gardiner | Ceteris (Scotland) Ltd.
Fiona McCulloch | Specsavers, Alloa
Helena McCallum | Albion Mobility
Thomas Cook regularly use the collection which has reduced the amount of waste currently being put in our Council bin which would over flow on a regular basis and now it is less than half full. The weekly E-mail reminder to put out our bags out is a great help. Sharon Selbie | Thomas Cook, Alloa
Graham Buik | Buicks Home Hardware
Pauline Bean | Greggs, Alloa
Susan Fleming | The Ochil Fudge Pantry
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