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Recycling collection rate more than doubles to 65%

Local government: Waste services

Recycling collection rate more than doubles to 65%
 Our new waste collection and recycling system involved the whole organisation working together towards a common goal. The GIS component of the project was critical to us being able to both plan for and implement new collection systems and also to field customer enquires during the initial stages of implementation. It enabled a very efficient use of staff time and we were able to target our effort effectively as a result. The outcome speaks for itself – we are one of the top recyclers in the country and our councillors and community are very happy with the scheme!
Chas Bradfield, Deputy Chief Executive, Surrey Heath Borough Council

At a glance

Surrey Heath Borough CouncilSurrey Heath Borough Council becomes one of the country’s top recyclers by using geographic information to support the delivery of a modernised and efficient waste collection service.

Printable version: download PDFVisit the Surrey Heath Borough Council website

Contact us to find out more

In 2009, Surrey Heath Borough Council needed to renew and modernise its waste collection contract: moving from weekly black sack collection to fortnightly alternating wheelie bin collection. The majority of residents were to receive a grey waste wheelie bin, a green recycling wheelie bin and an indoor and outdoor food caddy. Food waste was to be collected weekly and waste and recycling collected on alternate weeks. Wherever possible, changes were to result in minimum disruption (avoiding collection day changes).

Oblique aerial photographs were used to look at building frontages to make initial assessments regarding wheelie bin suitability (without officers having to make costly and numerous inspections). An initial ‘waste collection points’ dataset was generated from the council’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and mapped against Ordnance Survey data (in the CadCorp® geographical information system) in order to provide an excellent visual image of the current contract areas. This dataset contains some 35 600 waste collection points and is used widely across the authority.

A completely new fleet of collection vehicles was provided by the contractor to support the move to bins from bags and the geographical information system (GIS) and mapping system was used extensively to calculate the new crew allocations. There is general agreement that, due to current low level of resource available, the contract build-up and switch to wheelie bins (and the subsequent huge increase in recycling collection rates) could not have been done without the aid of GIS and Ordnance Survey mapping data.

Different waste collection crews seen over 1:10 000 scale Ordnance Survey mappingDetailed property level waste collection data over OS MasterMapHeathmap intranet mapping provides waste collection data to our contact centre.

  • Recycling collection rate has moved from 30% to 65% in one year.
  • New collection vehicles provided by the contractor.
  • Improved crew allocations/increased efficiency of service.
  • Contact centre staff able to answer enquiries using waste collection points data.
  • Data supports ‘My Surrey Heath’ – allowing citizens to self-serve waste collection information from the Internet without having to contact the authority.
  • Authority shortlisted for an award at the National Recycling Awards event (in the ‘Local Authority Target Success’ category).

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