2013

Mobile apps for refuse, recycling and street cleansing services - RSC0585/251113
This authority would be interested in feedback from other local authorities who have developed and issued mobile, tablet and/ or smart phone apps for their refuse, recycling and street cleansing services; predominantly for reporting problems such as missed bins or reporting issues. Information on the following would be particularly useful:

• Number of downloads
• Number of reports
• Ratio of app reports against other methods (phone, email etc.)
• Content of the app (report it, collection calendar, collection information, HRCs)
• How the app was developed (in house IT or external contractor)
• Is this for waste services only or does it include other council services too?

---

Night time street cleansing - RSC0583/211113
This authority would welcome feedback from other member authorities on the following:

• Do you currently undertake night time street cleansing?
• What hours and days are worked?
• What are the costs and resources used for this?

Any partnership arrangements in place to undertake the work

---

Evening time waste collections - RSC0581/191113
This member authority is considering the viability of evening time waste collections. They would be interested to hear from other authorities who have considered this and specifically:

• Have you considered evening waste collections?
• If so what type of areas have been considered suitable or unsuitable?

When arriving at your decision what factors have your considered. E.g. parking, health and safety issues, fleet maintenance etc.

---

Waste collection and/or street cleansing tenders - RSC0584/221113
This Authority is keen to talk to any councils that have tendered their waste collection and/or street cleansing in the last 12 months. They would be interested in the result of the tender exercise (for example, services were retained in-house).

---

Considerations when employing young people in refuse and street cleansing services - RSC0586/261113
This member authority is considering employment of younger people (16 -18 years) in the areas of refuse collection and street cleansing services. They would like to hear from other authorities about their protocols for the employment of young people in these services including any:

• Health and Safety Considerations
• Any operational restrictions / legal barriers such as the use of specific pieces of equipment, tools or fleet
• Other matters considered in the employment of young people
• Totters Rights’- Totting at Household Waste Recycling Centres -
• This local authority is looking into ‘Totters Rights’ and the processes used for the removal of totters from their Household Waste Recycling Centres.

In the past people have claimed totters rights to the metal (etc) retrieved from landfill to make a living.

However, waste management and recycling legislation has greatly changed in the past decade and this practice is largely outdated. Could you help with the following queries:

• Is totters an issue in your area?
• Have you removed totters from your Council owned sites?
• How did you go about doing this and could you share any of your processes or procedures?
• Do you know of any case law or relevant information that you could provide on this subject?

---

Spreading salt by hand - RH0194/RSC0580/141113
This authority would like to know if any other member has made, or is aware of, a video on how to spread salt by hand efficiently.

---

Recycling initiatives – RSC0587/271113
This local authority would be interested in getting information on schemes in operation within local authorities that reward individuals, households or community groups for recycling, including points/rewards schemes or smartcard systems.

---

Introducing co-mingled collections and reduced collection frequency - RSC0578/071113
This authority intends to improve household recycling services including the roll out of a new wheeled bin (240l) for co-mingled recycling with glass opposed to the source segregated box/bag system. They are keen to see whether this can be coupled with a reduced collection frequency or bin capacity for general refuse. As such they would like to hear from local authorities or organisations about their experiences, problems and benefits of:

• Reducing the frequency of their household general refuse collections beyond a fortnightly collection and /or
• Reducing the capacity of the general refuse bin below 240litres.

---

Management of city centre cleansing and grounds maintenance – RSC0582/201113
This local authority would welcome feedback from other local authorities on the following:

• Is your city centre cleansing and grounds maintenance currently undertaken by an internal team or a 3rd party organisation? Is this as part of a wider contract or a separate city centre management contract?
• How big i.e. FTE is the team delivering your city centre cleansing and grounds maintenance service?
• What is the total cost per annum of the service to your organisation for city centre cleansing and grounds maintenance?
• Has your service previously been delivered by a 3rd party organisation and subsequently in-sourced?
• If so, when?

---

Productivity rates - Multi-storey car park cleaning – RSC0579/111113
A member authority is seeking assistance to gauge the cost of cleansing of multi-storey car parks.

Please can you provide information on the following:

• Method of cleaning?
• Frequency of clean?
• Productivity rate for a single clean – M2/hour or other measure?

---

Trucks Driving on Pavements - RSC0577/141013
This authority would like to hear from other authorities where there are hard to access locations (narrow streets) where vehicles mount the pavements to carry out collections and what solutions any authorities have implemented to avoid breaking driving laws.

---

Use of clear recycling bags – RSC0575
This authority uses clear recycling bags as an alternative to bins. They are interested in other local authorities who do the same and would like to know:

• If a set number of bags are allocated to households each year
• If additional bags are requested, are these provided
• If so is this a free delivery or is a charge made
• Are bags delivered to the householder or are they made available at sites such as libraries, etc.

---

Dealing with bins left out and side waste – RSC0573/230813
This authority is looking at waste issues and would like to know how others deal with the following:

• Residents leaving household bins on the pavements/street day and night
• Residents leaving side-waste alongside household bins for collection

They would appreciate any information about the actions taken to address these issues and copies of relevant policies would be gratefully received.

---

Collection of recyclable materials from narrow access properties – RSC0559/100713
A member authority has a collection in place using dual stream and tri stream vehicles that allows them to collect food waste weekly and then glass, residual and co-mingled recyclate on an alternating week basis.

They however cannot get the tri stream vehicle on a small enough chassis to do this in narrow and difficult access areas.

They are therefore considering what options there are for collecting 5 material types over a 2 week period using an 18 tonne chassis and/or 7.5 tonne chassis. They would like to hear from others about the following:

• Does your authority have experience of collecting many materials on smaller vehicles and can you provide details of this?
• Has your authority concluded that this is not financially viable or environmentally sound and what were the reasons?

---

Impact of green waste on recycling tonnages RSC0554/140613
This local authority would be interested in hearing from any other councils who have looked at the impact of green waste on recycling tonnages. If you have done analysis on this, do you know what the likely impact on your recycling targets would be if green waste was to be taken out of the recycling totals?

---

4-day working week RSC0553/220513
This authority would like to hear from other authorities who have a waste service operating a 4-day working week. They would be interested in further details around what working patterns you have adopted.

---

Fly-tipping and private landlord tenants RSC0552/220513
This authority would like to hear from any other local authorities on how they have dealt with private landlords who have a tenant that leaves a property and claim that what they have left behind is a fly tip and not connected to the property. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

---

Fitting 360 degree cameras to refuse vehicles RSC0551/090513
This local authority would welcome feedback from other local authorities on their refuse freighters. The next refuse freighters that will be delivered to this authority will have 360 degree cameras fitted as standard. Have any other authorities had to introduce a policy on use of footage for disciplinary/ training purposes? Also is there any issue with recording images of the public?

---

Provision of larger plastic bins for commercial use - RSC0550/150413
This local authority would be interested in hearing from any other local authorities who have had long-term experience of using larger plastic bins for commercial use. In particular they hoped that other authorities would share their knowledge regarding durability and reparability, cost and economy; user and customer feedback. Do you limit their use, e.g. Office environments only?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

---

Hearing protection for waste operatives – RSC0548/270313
This authority would like to find out from other local authorities the exact type of hearing protection given to waste operatives when collecting co-mingled recyclable waste which includes glass where noise levels are above 85 DBA.

---

Using handhelds for recording LEQSPro data – RSC0547/270313
This Council use LEQsPro (from Keep Britain Tidy) to record their data on local environmental quality. In the past the surveyor has been recording on paper however the Council wish to move to a handheld solution.

They are interested to hear from Councils who are using a handheld and then downloading information direct into LEQSPro or similar systems/spreadsheets.

---

Countering trade abuse at recycling centres licensed for household waste only - RSC0549/270313
This council is currently looking at a raft of measures to address trade abuse at its Recycling Centres. One proposal is to introduce a Disclaimer to be completed when the site operative suspects the waste brought to site is commercial waste. They are looking for examples of forms that that have proved successful in countering trade abuse at Recycling Centres licenced for household waste only.

---

Food waste analysis - RSC0543/260213
This authority would like to hear from other local authorities who do not currently operate a separate collection of food waste to ask if you have conducted any residual waste analysis exercises recently to establish the level of food waste in the residual bin.

---

Drivers’ weekly maintenance of waste collection vehicles - RSC0542/200213
This Authority would like to know what Authorities do with regard to the weekly maintenance of waste collection vehicles by drivers:

• How much time is made available for this function each week?
• Is this paid at overtime rates?
• What tasks are carried out within that time?
• Has this changed from a historic agreement and have you seen any impact on the vehicle condition?
• Do you provide a formal training session and support documents (user guide etc.)?

---

6 or 7 day working week for refuse collection - RSC0541/200213
This authority would like to know which authorities carry out their refuse service over 6 / 7 days. If you do, please provide details for the following:

• How many hours are worked per day?
• Start and finish time
• Wheeled bin round or liner
• Weekly or fortnightly collection?
• Do you operate task and finish?
• Shift/rota patterns (days on / off)

Inspection of paths and road-ways in parks and greenspaces - RH0183/130313
This local authority is proposing applying the Highways Inspection regime to surfaced paths/road-ways in parks and greenspaces. They would like to find out of other authorities:

• Do you apply the same standard of path inspection / maintenance to parks as you do to the highway?
• Do you have different intervention levels / timescales for repair between highways and parks?
• Do you have any formal inspection regime / maintenance schedule for surfaced paths/road-ways in parks and greenspaces?

---

Hazard warning beacons on refuse collection vehicles - RSC0540/200213
Has any other local authority had any recorded issues around the use of strobe type orange hazard warning beacons on collection vehicles being highlighted as the direct cause of an epileptic seizure while working in a public area. If so, please state the type of lighting on the vehicle.

---

Gully Cleansing – RH0182/280213
This authority is reviewing its gully cleansing operations. They currently operate a 2 man team on each gully tanker and both operatives hold an LGV licence and share the driving /cleaning duties to reduce the manual handling. All of their gully tankers are right-hand drive.

They would like to know whether others operate 1 or 2 person teams and whether they have made a switch between these 2 options. If they have made such a change, they are interested to know the benefits or problems which emerged and how the latter were dealt with.

Any guidance provided would be gratefully received.

---

Shift Patterns for Street Cleaning - RSC0546/140313
This local authority would appreciate feedback from other members in relation to those currently carrying out 7 day working within the operational area of Street Cleaning. In particular information on the shift patterns and what is paid for Saturday/ Sunday.

---

Integrated Street Scene job descriptions (Supervisors, Managers and Operatives) RSC0545/140313
This authority is looking for examples of job descriptions and personal specifications of supervisors, managers and operatives for those authorities who operate an integrated Street Scene service, and would like to hear from authorities who could provide this information.

---

Street cleansing strategy - RSC0539/060213
This local authority would like to hear from other local authorities that currently have a Street Cleansing Strategy or are working on setting one up. They would be particularly interested in strategies which show how the authority manages the levels of cleanliness of their streets and what initiatives are in place.

---

Route optimisation - RSC0538/210113
This local authority would like to hear from other local authorities who have completed route optimisation for grass cutting rounds and/or street cleansing rounds. Please provide details of the services covered and  the methods used, including successes and challenges.

---

Type of gloves for waste operatives - RSC0537/210113
This local authority would like to find out from other members what type of gloves (with the exact specification) are provided for waste operatives for use in very cold weather and do they combine thermal and puncture/cut protection?

---

Double shift working for the collection of waste - RSC0536/210113
This authority would like to hear from any colleagues who have either implemented, or are thinking of implementing, a system of double shift working for the collection of waste. They would be particularly interested to hear about advantages of double shift working, any problems that have been encountered in implementing this and any other feedback.

---

Rural refuse collection rates - RSC0535/210113
This authority is looking to compare productivity rates for its refuse collection routes in rural areas. They would like to hear the following from others:

The number of bin lifts per operative per day in rural areas only. Please also identify if the driver lifts bins on rural routes (e.g. 200 bins per day per operative with the driver lifting alongside one other operative).

---

Implementation of a bulky good collection charging scheme - RSC0533/031013
This local authority would appreciate feedback from other authorities who have implemented a bulky good collection charging scheme, including:

• The response by residents
• Whether there was an increase in fly tipping levels after the implementation of the charging scheme
• Lessons learned

---

Guidance on reversing vehicles - RSC0532/031013
This local authority would appreciate feedback from other authorities on reversing refuse and recycling vehicles where crew members have completed their tasks and left the vehicles before returning to the depot (i.e. they have been dropped off following the completion of work). In these circumstances, what instructions are drivers given if they reverse their vehicle and they don’t have a crew member present.

---

Dealing with chewing gum residue - RSC0531/031013
This local authority would appreciate feedback from other local authorities on the following:

• How do you remove chewing gum residue?
• What chewing gum residue removal equipment have you purchased and what is your assessment of its effectiveness?
• Do you use an external chewing gum residue removal contractor and if yes - who this is?
• How many complaints have you received from the public in 2011 / 2012 regarding chewing gum residue?

---

New or replacement wheeled bins - RSC0534/150113
An APSE member authority would like to hear about local authorities that have introduced a charge to residents for new or replacement wheeled bins within the last few years. In particular:

• How much resistance was there from householders, and how was this managed?
• Approximately what proportion of new or replacement bins are actually charged for (e.g. a quarter, a half etc.)?
• Has the policy been amended since its introduction?