Employing dedicated officers, walking ahead of the collection crews, helps identify more contamination than leaving it to the crews alone.
ReLondon tested this hypothesis as part of the ‘Improving the quality of recycling in London’ research project. We used the results to develop a tool that will help you calculate whether it is cost effective to employ recycling quality officers in your borough.
About the Tackling contamination project
Contamination in the household recycling stream is one of the most common issues London’s local authorities face with their household collection services, affecting budgets, recycling performance and the quality of recyclate.
In this research project, ReLondon worked with London’s authorities to help them understand the true cost of reactively dealing with contamination in recycling at the kerbside and in flats, and tested interventions to reduce contamination and improve the quality of the recycling being collected.
Want to find more resources relating to this research project (including a report on the implementation and findings of the ‘Recycling quality officer pilot’ that informed this cost/benefit analysis tool)?
