Case studies

Many councils have put in place arrangements for separate collection of household waste. Councils are encouraging people to use composters in their gardens, they have placed bottle banks and collect paper and landfill waste separately. Engels can contribute to the delivery of all these facilities. Engels already has a proven track record in supplying to councils. In the 80s and 90s Engels supplied large numbers of boxes for environmentally hazardous waste to councils in the Netherlands. Since this time both Engels and their range of products has extended significantly and we continue to focus on ecological methods of waste processing. The Bunnik town council in the Netherlands was collecting insufficient amounts of paper, well below the national average. The council went in search of ways to encourage the separate collection of paper and turned to Engels.

Question

The Bunnik town council collects the paper door-to-door with the help of non-profit organisations and volunteers. In the old situation citizens would put the paper in boxes or tied bags for kerbside collection. In bad weather this caused street litter and hampered the collection. A lot of the paper would be lost among the landfill waste which resulted in high incineration costs. A lot of thought went into new ways of collecting waste in order to avoid these problems. It soon became apparent that a mini-container would solve the most important problems. It would also guarantee that the level of service to citizens could be maintained. So it was decided to try out the project in a district of Bunnik called Werkhoven. This would provide an opportunity to solve any teething problems before the entire town was supplied with containers.

Our proposal

Engels supplied 240 litre containers in a blue (paper) colour. These containers comply with the EN 840 [Netherlands standard] and have been certified by the relevant [Netherlands] institute [TUV]. All parts were designed to guarantee many years of use with no concessions to quality. The colours of the containers are sure to retain their vibrance for at least the next ten years. Apart from supplying the containers Engels can also take care of distribution and registration of the containers per property.

Evaluation

Now that the town of Werkhoven has been supplied with containers, the town council has decided to assess whether the containers meet their expectations. The results in the report show that all are in favour of the new containers: the containers will earn back their cost. Collections are running smoothly. The separation of waste has improved greatly and more paper is being collected. In the town of Werkhoven approximately 10% more paper has been collected. Because the separation of waste has improved, more paper can be recycled. And because less paper ends up as landfill waste, so less paper is sent to in incinerator plants and the incineration costs are less. Loose bundles of paper have been replaced by neat containers resulting in litter-free streets. Collection can still be done by non-profit organisations, thanks to the new containers. The organisations have been instructed on how to use the special waste collection vehicles used to empty the containers. This means the organisations are able to keep their source of income. The organisations are very happy and so are the inhabitants. In January 2007 the remainder of the town was supplied with containers from Engels.

Will your council be next?