Waste giants endorse use of glass bring banks

Two of the UK's largest waste management companies have urged councils to consider the benefits of collecting glass in bring banks following concerns over the quality of material collected at the kerbside, writes Chris Sloley.

However, recycling officers have expressed reluctance over re-installing the facilities due to fears over capture rates and public convenience - warning that quality is not necessarily the main driver.

According to waste management giants Veolia Environmental Services and SITA UK - which both offer a variety of glass collection services to customers - bring banks have been very successful in Europe and could help improve glass quality collected by councils in the UK.

The comments come in the wake of a growing trend among councils to remove bring banks and echo calls by glass industry body British Glass in July 2008 to bring banks back in place of commingled collections. This followed figures showing a fall in the amount of glass which was recycled into containers in 2007 because it was collected commingled and therefore not separated by colour (see letsrecycle.com story).

Jean-Dominique Mallet, chief executive of Veolia Environmental Services, told letsrecycle.com that the UK should look at the example set by much of Europe.

He said: "Bring banks are working everywhere on the continent. In France and Germany their design is very positive and they are very successful.

"If you can get more bring banks, I would favour separation of the glass," he added.

David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of waste management firm SITA UK, added that banks could make a "vast" difference to material quality.

He said: "Separating glass from other recyclables, via bring-banks or kerbside collections, leads to a vast improvement in the quality of the material for reprocessing. And quality is improved further when the glass is separated into individual colours."

For the full release, click