Scottish Environmental Services
Scottish Environmental Services (SES) a joint venture between Alloa Community Enterprises (ACE) and the ECT Group is aiming to be a new force for recycling and sustainability in Scotland.
Alloa Community Enterprises is one of Scotland's oldest established community recycling businesses. Founded by Dr Alf Martin for "the relief of poverty by the alleviation of unemployment", ACE also achieves its objectives by being involved in environmental activities, particularly recycling.
ACE has now joined forces with the ECT Group in a joint venture to sell services to all local authorities and large organisations in Scotland. The new company will trade as Scottish Environmental Services and will specialise in providing integrated recycling and waste collection services.
ECT is a diverse and dynamic social enterprise.
We use the strength this gives us to pursue our social and environmental goals. Our activities include everything from sustainable recycling and waste management through to community transport, community railways, railway engineering and primary health care. As a result we have been able to establish joint ventures around the UK with other community recycling organisations, become involved in social and economic regeneration through our railway companies, provide much-needed good quality health care to a community in West London, and to create worthwhile and well paid employment in Senegal, West Africa.
We provide a solution to the dilemma facing public authorities wanting responsive public services of the quality their communities expect, and at a price that they can afford. We compete on both price and quality - determined to offer genuine "Best Value". We are committed to excellence and entrepreneurship throughout our organisation.
When it comes to recycling and ensuring that materials can be effectively re-used, recyclates such as cans, plastics, paper and cardboard can be collected either co-mingled or source separated. Co-mingled means that the materials are mixed in with each other. These materials are then hauled to Material reclamation facilities (MRFs). This presents quality problems particularly with regards to paper being soiled by leachate from cans and bottles. Paper mills are now beginning to reject significant tonnages due to excessive spoiling caused by leachate. This in addition to forecast decreases in material values due to changes in the Asian market is expected to lead to significant increases in MRF gate prices being passed on to Councils and other clients.
Most of the recycling collections undertaken by ACE and ECT are on a source separation basis. The companies are keen to see this trend continue as it reduces the tonnages of waste being diverted to landfill and ensures that the handling and transportation of the materials is also minimised.
Source Separation - how it works
ECT provides recycling services to over 1 million households in the UK. More than 99% of the material we collect is through a source separated collection system which we believe is the most effective recycling method as it results in 99.5% of materials collected from doorsteps being recycled. Items put out for collection are sorted at the kerbside by recycling operatives. Different materials are put into different compartments, on the recycling vehicle, for example paper will go into one section, glass into another and so on. The materials are separated in this way for two reasons. Firstly to stop them contaminating one another, for example glass breaking and getting mixed with paper. Secondly, because the materials are later stored and purchased by type, for example green glass, brown glass, paper etc.
Once collected, the materials are then taken to an ECT recycling depot where they are stored briefly before being bought by reprocessors or end users. Reprocessors and end users buy the recyclable materials and recycle them. For example, British Glass will purchase the glass collected by ECT and recycle it into new glass.
ECT audits the collections coming into recycling depots. And then again when it is collected to by the 'reprocessor' who must be able to prove it is being recycled. It is through this careful monitoring that ECT can prove that 99.5% of materials it collects are recycled.
ECT's work across the UK
- Our work across the UK demonstrates how we have risen to the challenge necessary to achieve a position where we are recognised as an innovative and competitive waste management company. In cooperation with our local authority partners we have developed policies and systems to reduce the amount of domestic waste going to landfill by influencing the behaviour of householders towards recycling and composting. This has helped them achieve their recycling and waste management targets.
- Ealing Clean and Green in West London is our first integrated waste management contract. It comprises three main elements: recycling, domestic refuse collection and street cleansing. The borough now has one of the most comprehensive recycling services in the country. Ealing's rate of recycling has moved up consistently and is now in the top quartile of London boroughs.
- In October 2007 the signing of a new contact between the Somerset Waste Partnership and ECT Recycling paved the way for Somerset to reach record recycling rates. It is our largest single waste management contract to date.
- The new contract includes the collection of household refuse, garden waste, clinical waste, bulky waste, dry recyclable material and food waste. ECT was already providing recycling services to four of the six Somerset Waste Partnership districts. Three are using alternate weekly refuse collections alongside weekly recycling and food waste collections, for which the results are very exciting. This combination has resulted in a significant drop in household waste. In many parts of Somerset the recycling rate is 45% or more, but - much better than this - these areas also have amongst the lowest waste-to-landfill rates in the country.
- In November 2007 ECT signed a new multi-million pound 10-year contract with Bath and North East Somerset Council to provide doorstep recycling to 75,000 households. The contract is due to initially run for 10 years, and will follow-on directly from the previous contract that ECT had with the council for household waste recycling.
- It will cover the Bath and North East Somerset area stretching from the outskirts of Bristol, south into the Mendip Hills and east to the southern Cotswold Hills and the Wiltshire border. We provide a weekly green box collection service. It includes the collection of aluminium foil and trays, batteries, engine oil, glass, mobile phones, oil filters, paper, plastic bottles, shoes, spectacles, textiles, tins and cans, toner cartridges and yellow pages.
- With ECT's source separated collection system residents can be confident that this means that 99.5% of materials collected from doorsteps are recycled.
- Our 50-50 partnership with Bryson Charitable Group in Northern Ireland continues to grow enabling the operating company, Bryson Recycling to serve communities in Armagh, Ballymena, Bambridge, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh and Newtownabbey.
- Since becoming involved in the joint venture the turnover has increased from under £1/2 million to over £6.5 million in just four years. The operation has been diversified by building a materials recycling facility (MRF) at Mullask on the outskirts of Belfast.This serves 11 local authorities in the ARC 21 waste disposal partnership which serves 55% of the population of Northern Ireland. Bryson Recycling continues to grow rapidly and with increasing turnover.
- DAWN Environmental is also a joint venture. The Community West Recycling Partnership in Doncaster approached us to work with them on bidding for a kerbside recycling service to 68,000 households in the north and west of the borough. The contract has been operating since April 2007 on behalf of Doncaster Council. It is a two-year contract to provide a weekly doorstep recycling service for paper, glass, cans, textiles, mobiles and toner cartridges, plastic bottles and Yellow Pages.
Innovation - Getting Results
- ECT has achieved tremendous results by increasing recycling rates and reducing waste going through recycling and re-use centres. In 2005 Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England, we managed to cut the amount of rubbish going through the site from 50,000 to 20,000 tonnes and increase recycling rates from 10% to 40% in the first month after taking control.
- Where we lead others follow. We were the first to introduce large-scale recycling schemes for high-rise flats. We have taken kerbside recycling a step further by working with Barnet Council in London to operate the UK's first compulsory recycling scheme. This raised performance in 2006 by 25%, increased cost-effectiveness and improved productivity. Other local authorities are now catching on.
