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What is Bulky Waste?
Bulky waste – unwanted household
items that are too cumbersome to go in the ubiquitous wheelie bin
– is a waste stream that deserves everyone’s
attention. In today’s throw-away society, where fashion and
technological change mean that we change our furnishings and electrical
appliances with ever-increasing frequency, there is an urgent need to
find ways to tackle the mountains of unwanted yet re-usable items that
would otherwise be consigned to landfill sites. The majority of the
bulky waste stream tends to be furniture and electrical goods which the
householder is replacing.
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What FRN members do
Furniture and appliance re-use organisations
around the UK have already effectively been reducing the amount of
local authorities bulky household waste for 25 years, while ensuring
their product is fit for re-use. FRN members currently receive nearly 2
million items of furniture and almost a quarter of a million domestic
appliances per year. They check and refurbish them as necessary and
pass them on to people who welcome them, primarily low income families,
or people setting up home for the first time. FRN members, the only
nationally organised group of re-users in the UK , are ideally placed
to meet the challenge of taking these items out of the waste stream for
the benefit of the local community.
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Traditional bulky waste
systems
Local authority or waste management
company-run bulky waste collections are ALL made from outside of
properties, subjecting the items to damage by the weather, vandals etc.
Furthermore, the vast majority of items are then either put into a
dust-cart (compactor) or an open-backed vehicle and sent to landfill.
These methods of collection ensure than items cannot be re-used or, in
many cases, recycled.
At civic amenity sites, the most common
system for bulky items is to throw them into crushers, which are then
sent to landfill.
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Collecting items for re-use
and recycling
FRN members collect from inside properties
and transport items in enclosed vehicles, taking care to protect their
intrinsic value.
In the main, these groups have gained little
recognition, as this has been an historically ignored waste stream.
However local authorities are under increasing pressure to reducing the
amount of waste, including bulky items, sent to landfill. As a result,
a handful of bulky waste service partnerships between public, private
and community sectors have been developed across the UK in recent
years. However, much more could be achieved.
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The FRN guide to Bulky Re-use
In 2006, the FRN published Bulky
Basics, in partnership with LARAC and Network
Recycling. This manual sets out the requirements and standards expected
for bulky re-use services set up either through local authority
collections or at civic amenity sites. Its aim is to help all parties
achieve an effective, economic and efficient service, while setting a
high standard of customer service and maximising the potential for
re-use. Although the manual is primarily aimed at furniture re-use
organisations both interested in starting a bulky re-use items
partnership activity and those already undertaking one, it is also
proving very useful to partner local authorities and waste management
companies. The guidance was developed during 2005/06, as the result of
an extensive research and evaluation project, and includes a section on
calculating the costs and benefits of transforming a bulky waste
service into one that includes re-use.
“ Bulky Basics is an
excellent and really comprehensive piece of work. It is packed with
essential ‘how to’ information rather than theories
and I'm sure that both local authorities and furniture groups will find
it a real help in guiding them through the practicalities of setting up
bulky waste re-use and recycling schemes.” Joy
Blizzard, LARAC Communications Officer.
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To order a copy of the guide
please download the order form – here.
Click here to download the first section of the manual including contents list |
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If
you are an FRN member interested in a bulky waste partnership
with your local authority, or a local authority officer interested in
partnering with a community sector organisation to maximise diversion,
and require help please contact: Caroline
Lee-Smith, Partnership Director carolinels@frn.org.uk
Local
Authorities can also refer to Defra's Bulky Waste Toolkit (Jan 06), a
step by step guide to maximising re-use and recycling.
Download the FRN/WRAP/LARAC re-use credits briefing paper for local
authorities on how-to set up a re-use credits system for third parties.
Support for local authorities in the area of bulky waste currently
comes under WRAP ROTATE's remit. To apply for support under this programme go to:
www.wrap.org.uk/local_authorities/support_funding/waste_prevention.html
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