Improving Waste Collection Logistics

Article from The Edge (Vision 21* Transport Magazine) – Issue 39, June 2003

Geoff Sampson - Senior Consultant, Entec

The UK waste management market is going through a period of significant change. Waste production continues to grow, at a national rate in the region of 3 percent per annum, whilst European legislation and national waste policy act to divert material away from landfill and improve recycling performance.

The shift from waste to sustainable resource management, and the associated drivers to improve levels of materials recycling and recovery, requires end-of-life material streams to be managed as inputs to new products. This concept represents a ‘closing of the loop’ within the product supply chain and requires future systems to take account of a broader range of controlling parameters than has been the case in the past.

As the infrastructure to manage waste and resources becomes more complex, technologies developed to optimise logistics systems will become increasingly important to waste managers in their bid to deliver ‘Best Value’ services. The days of waste collection involving a single, mixed waste pick-up and delivery to stand-alone disposal points are numbered.

Waste Collection

The way in which waste is collected (in terms of vehicle types, capacities, staffing levels and round configuration) depends on the nature of the collection, e.g. household / commercial, and contractual arrangements in place (working hours, disposal points, materials collected and receptacles used, e.g. black bag, wheelie-bin, orange sack).

The mileage travelled and time taken to collect and deliver the waste we produce is significant; demographic make-up and proximity of delivery points to rounds are key. Factors including number of properties served, waste production rates, vehicle capacities, rural / urban locations, remote access collections, locations of disposal points and use of transfer stations all have an impact on mileage travelled. The rate at which household waste can be collected may range from figures as low as 40 properties per hour (for remote access, rural or kerbside sort systems) up to approximately 220 properties per hour (where urban collections are made from the edge of the property).

As well as the economic cost, waste collection and transport has significant environmental and health & safety implications, issues that are often poorly understood and quantified when new strategies are developed and contracts let.

Waste logistics arrangements have tended to evolve in a reactive manner to these changes, resulting in systems that are not as efficient as they might be.

Opportunities and Barriers to Improving Efficiency

A number of barriers exist to improving the efficiency of waste collection logistics, key examples being:

• The inconsistent nature of waste production, with variations occurring on a weekly and seasonal basis and from street-to-street and region-to-region;
• Access restrictions, meaning that not all properties can be serviced by the same vehicles;
• Ineffective matching of vehicles to rounds; and
• Variations in material delivery points over time, a situation that will arise more frequently as materials reprocessing and delivery to new markets increases.

Opportunities to improve the efficiency of waste collection logistics may include the following:

• Raising the issue of logistics earlier in the planning phases of integrated waste management systems;
• Phased introduction of new collection schemes such that transport problems can be addressed and costs more fully understood prior to full scheme adoption;
• Partnership working, e.g. through shared depots;
• Improved understanding of the capabilities of the asset-base;
• Collection and use of operational performance data to inform future planning
• Effective periodic work scheduling and routing; and
• Contingency planning, e.g. for unplanned closure of waste disposal facilities.

In response to the changing needs of the waste management industry Entec, one of the UK’s largest environmental and engineering consultancies, has developed a modelling capability that facilitates analysis of the logistics of handling waste. The service addresses how best to manage the collection, transfer, treatment and onward supply of materials in any regional waste management system. Through analysis of all components in the waste supply chain, i.e. operational delivery, tactical resource deployment and strategic planning of facilities, the performance of proposed changes to the way in which waste is managed can be quickly and accurately assessed against a range of performance metrics.

Examples of the analyses that might be undertaken through waste logistics modelling include:

• Design of new kerbside collection systems, including fleet details, round configuration and resource planning;
• Planning for changing service provision, i.e. the impact of depot, transfer station and disposal facility locations on collection costs and performance; and
• Siting of new facilities and markets for materials collected.

The figure above includes a typical output from a logistics analysis where modelling has been used to determine the impact of a changing collection system (i.e. introduction of a green waste collection) on service levels.

Collection logistics is a complex and increasingly important element of the way in which society manages the waste and resources it produces. Logistics requirements are becoming more complex as material-focused collection and reprocessing systems are brought online in response to legislative and policy drivers. Past methods of planning for and operating waste collection systems are under pressure, resulting in the need for novel approaches to future management. If the UK is to meet the challenging targets set for waste recycling and diversion from landfill at acceptable cost, it is essential that waste transport operators gear up to the changes ahead.

* Vision 21 is Gloucestershire’s Local Agenda 21

For further information, contact:
Vision 21
30 St George’s Place
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL50 3JZ
Tel: 01242 224321

Back to top

Click here to load the Entec home page