Across England, existing county, district and borough councils are being brought together into new unitary structures; creating single authorities responsible for a huge range of local services.

The scale of the changes is made clear by the Government’s live updates page. Decisions have been announced for 19 of the 21 areas going through Local Government Reorganisation, with the confirmed plans creating 57 unitary councils.

But waste collections, street cleansing, grounds maintenance and other frontline services cannot be joined together overnight. New unitary authorities may inherit several different ways of working, supported by different technology, depots, fleets, contractors and operational policies.

The challenge is not simply to combine them but to decide what the new service should look like, and build the systems, data and operational structure needed to deliver it.

The Operational Challenges Facing New Unitary Councils

When neighbouring councils become one, the new authority can inherit a complex mix of legacy arrangements. Waste and recycling services are a clear example. Former council areas may operate different collection frequencies, use different containers and accept different materials. Food waste arrangements may vary, as might policies for assisted collections, bulky waste, garden waste and commercial waste.

Behind these visible differences are further operational variations:

• Each authority may use its own ICT systems and databases.
• Depot locations and fleet arrangements may have developed around historic boundaries.
• One service may be delivered in-house while another is outsourced, with contracts ending at different times.

Existing collection rounds are also likely to have been designed around the boundaries and resources of the former authorities. Once those boundaries disappear, they may no longer represent the most efficient way to serve the new area.

People are another important part of the picture. Staff restructuring, TUPE transfers and changes to management structures may all form part of the transition. Different teams can also bring different working practices, processes and local knowledge.

The immediate priority must, of course, be continuity. Residents still need their bins collected and streets maintained throughout the transition. However, LGR also creates an opportunity to look beyond maintaining existing arrangements and consider how services could be delivered more smoothly as part of a single authority.

The Need for a Single Operational View

One of the first challenges for a new unitary authority is gaining a clear view of what is happening across its newly combined area. If operational information remains fragmented between legacy systems, spreadsheets and databases, it becomes difficult for managers to understand performance across the authority as a whole.

The same property could potentially be represented differently in separate systems, while teams may record jobs, exceptions and service outcomes in different ways. Creating a common operational view can help remove these barriers.

Integrated Skills' SmartSuite is designed to provide a single source of truth for environmental services, allowing councils to manage multiple services through one platform. SmartSuite can support waste and recycling collections alongside services such as street cleansing, winter maintenance and gully emptying. Bringing this information together gives managers greater visibility of what is happening across operational teams and provides a more consistent basis for reporting.

During LGR, this can be particularly valuable. Reliable operational information allows councils to compare inherited services, identify differences and make evidence-based decisions about the future model.

Importantly, that value continues after the transition. A single operational view can help the new authority monitor performance, identify problems and continue improving services long after vesting day.

Harmonising Service Delivery Across the New Authority

Creating one authority does not mean that every service needs to become identical immediately. There may be good reasons for retaining some local differences - particularly during transition.

Existing contracts, vehicle availability, infrastructure and local geography can all affect the pace at which services can be harmonised. However, where standardisation is planned, LGR provides an opportunity to reconsider how services are designed.

Once several areas become one authority, historic boundaries may have little operational relevance. A depot that once sat at the edge of one council area, for example, could occupy a very different position within the new authority. This is where strategic route optimisation can support the transition.

Using RouteSmart Optimize and related solutions in the route optimisation suite, councils can model collection rounds and street services across the new operating area rather than simply joining existing rounds and services together. Different scenarios can be tested before changes are introduced. For example:

• What would happen if collections were operated from fewer depots?
• Could vehicles work across former council boundaries?
• How would changing waste & recycling collection frequencies affect the number of rounds required?
• Could workloads be balanced more evenly between crews?

Effective route optimisation can help balance workloads, reduce unnecessary mileage, make better use of fleet resources and create rounds that reflect the needs of the new authority, rather than the boundaries of the old ones.

Managing More Than Waste Services

Waste and recycling may be one of the largest frontline operations inherited by a new unitary authority, but it is far from the only one. A new council may also need to manage:

• Trade waste
• Street cleansing
• Grounds maintenance
• Winter maintenance
• Gully emptying
• Inspections and reactive jobs
• Emergency planning and response

Running each of these services through separate systems can create unnecessary duplication. Staff may need to move between different applications, managers may receive reports in different formats, property and customer information can be duplicated, and jobs that involve more than one team become harder to track.

A common operational platform offers a different approach. By managing multiple environmental and neighbourhood services through SmartSuite, authorities can create more consistent processes and gain a broader view of activity across their area. This can also make it easier to allocate resources and understand how different services interact.

For a newly formed unitary council, the opportunity is therefore greater than simply replacing several waste systems with one. LGR can provide the catalyst for considering how technology supports environmental services across the whole authority.

Data Integration and Digital Transformation

Technology consolidation does not necessarily mean replacing every existing system. The challenge is enabling these systems to communicate effectively.  Legacy systems may contain conflicting property records, different naming conventions or disconnected service histories.

Resolving these issues takes careful planning, but it also creates an opportunity to improve the quality and usability of operational data. SmartSuite provides APIs that allow integration with other applications, including:

• CRMs
• Telematics
• Finance systems
• Weighbridges (for waste tracking)
• Bin sensors

Property-level service histories can provide a clearer picture of what has happened at an individual address, while centralised reporting and analytics can help managers understand wider patterns.

This moves digital transformation beyond simply putting existing processes onto new software. It creates the opportunity to reconsider how information moves through the organisation and how it can support better operational decisions.

Supporting Frontline Workers Through Transformation

LGR is an organisational change, but its success relies on the people delivering services on the frontline. Drivers and operatives may find themselves working across a larger geographic area, routes may change, teams may be combined, and familiar processes could be replaced by authority-wide procedures.

Clear communication between frontline teams and management becomes especially important during this period. SmartSuite Mobile can support this connection in the field. Turn-by-turn navigation can help crews work confidently across unfamiliar areas, while service verification creates a clear record of completed activity.

Mobile job management and real-time operational updates allow information to move between the office and frontline teams without relying on paper-based processes or separate communications. Two-way messaging also provides a direct way to share important information with crews.

The Role of Professional Services

Before choosing how systems, routes or services should operate, councils need to understand what they have inherited and what they want the future authority to achieve.

Professional support can help councils assess existing operations, analyse route performance and identify opportunities for improvement. Integrated Skills' consultancy team can support the development of implementation roadmaps, helping authorities understand how changes could be phased while protecting service continuity.

Modelling is particularly valuable where several options are under consideration. Rather than basing major operational decisions on assumptions, councils can compare scenarios and quantify potential impacts on resources, mileage, cost and carbon emissions.

Change management is equally important. A technically efficient model still needs to work for staff, residents and the wider organisation. Bringing operational knowledge together with data analysis can help ensure proposed changes are both achievable and sustainable.

Turning Reorganisation into an Opportunity

The practical challenges of LGR should not be underestimated, but the shift also creates a rare opportunity. Authorities can use reorganisation to examine how frontline operations should work for the future; creating services that are easier to manage, more visible, resilient and efficient.

With the right operational data, technology, route modelling and professional support, LGR can provide the foundations for a genuinely integrated approach to local service delivery.

Integrated Skills supports local authorities through service transformation, from strategic modelling and route optimisation to operational technology and implementation support. Contact the Integrated Skills team to discuss how we can support your authority through Local Government Reorganisation.

The post One Authority, Multiple Services: Life After Local Government Reorganisation appeared first on Integrated Skills.

The UK’s need for new housing is creating significant change for towns, cities and communities. In England, the Government has set an ambition to deliver 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament, supported by planning reform and investment in the infrastructure needed to unlock housing development.

For local authorities, every new home represents a new demand on frontline services. New properties need residual waste, recycling and food waste collections. Depending on the authority, residents may also require garden waste, bulky waste and other services. As developments grow, the impact extends to vehicles, crews, depots, disposal points and, importantly, existing collection rounds.

The challenge for waste and recycling teams is therefore not simply how to collect from new homes once residents move in, but how to plan ahead and understand what growing communities will mean for the collection network in the future.

How Housing Growth Affects Existing Collection Rounds

New housing developments rarely appear neatly within existing collection patterns. An initial phase of 50 properties might be relatively straightforward to incorporate into an established round, but those 50 properties may quickly become 200, 500 or considerably more. Developments often expand over several years, with new roads and phases opening as construction progresses.

Each addition increases the number of collection points and the volume of material that needs to be collected. It can also increase round duration, mileage and vehicle capacity requirements. A crew may be able to absorb a small number of additional properties without difficulty, but as further phases are completed, the round can become unbalanced.

Eventually, an authority may find that a round regularly finishes later than neighbouring rounds, vehicles are approaching capacity, additional journeys are required or crews are travelling inefficiently between areas. At this point, simply continuing to add new properties to the nearest existing round may no longer be the most effective option.

It’s Not Just About the Number of Homes

Understanding the impact of housing growth requires more than counting properties. The geography and design of a development can significantly influence how efficiently it can be serviced.

A development of 500 detached and semi-detached homes presents a very different routing challenge from 500 apartments served through communal bin stores. Housing density, road layout, bin presentation points and distance between properties can all affect collection times.

Vehicle access is another important consideration. Narrow streets, cul-de-sacs, parking, turning restrictions and other road constraints can determine which vehicles can safely and practically service an area.

These factors reinforce the importance of geospatial data when planning services for new communities. Ordnance Survey has highlighted the role of accurate location data in planning housing development - including understanding existing road networks, nearby infrastructure and how new developments fit within the surrounding environment.

For waste teams, combining this geographic understanding with operational information provides a much clearer picture of what a development is likely to mean in practice.

Connecting Planning and Operational Teams

Much of the information needed to plan for housing growth may already exist within the local authority. The challenge is to make sure it reaches the right people.

Planning departments can have visibility of major developments years before homes are occupied. They may know the proposed number and type of properties, site boundaries, road layouts, development phases and expected timescales. Waste and recycling teams, meanwhile, understand existing rounds, vehicle capacities, depot arrangements and the practical realities of delivering collections. If these teams work separately, there is a risk of delay to operational planning.

Effective communication between planning, waste, highways, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and other relevant council departments can help authorities anticipate future service demand much earlier.

For example, knowing that a development will eventually contain 2,000 homes is useful. Knowing that the first 300 are expected to be occupied next year, another 500 the following year and that later phases will extend into a different part of the road network is far more useful when planning collection services.

Technology can help provide the common operational picture needed to support this collaboration. SmartSuite is designed to provide a single source of truth for environmental services, bringing operational information together rather than leaving it fragmented across separate systems and spreadsheets. It can also integrate with wider council systems through APIs.

By combining accurate property information with current operational data, councils can develop a clearer understanding of both the services being delivered today and the demand that is coming tomorrow.

Forecasting Future Waste and Recycling Demand

Knowing where new homes will be built creates an opportunity to forecast their impact. Additional properties mean more than additional collection points. Authorities need to consider how growth could affect waste and recycling volumes, vehicle capacity, crew requirements, round duration and travelling time. There may also be wider implications for depot and disposal arrangements.

For example, if a growing round repeatedly reaches vehicle capacity before completion, an additional trip to a disposal or transfer point could have a significant impact on the working day. Multiply that across several growing developments and the operational effect becomes much larger. Forecasting allows councils to ask these questions before the pressure appears.

Housing type can also be relevant. High-density developments with communal collections may require different operational assumptions than lower-density developments with individual bins.

The aim is not to predict every future collection with absolute precision, but to use the best available information to understand likely demand and identify when additional resources or wider service changes may be needed.

Modelling Growth with RouteSmart

Once an authority understands where growth is expected, route modelling can help translate that information into operational plans. RouteSmart allows local authorities to model different routing scenarios using geographic and operational data. This includes what-if modelling for service changes, fleet configurations and growth planning.

Instead of waiting for a development to reach full occupation and then discovering that existing rounds are struggling, authorities can test potential future scenarios. For example:

• What happens when the first 500 properties are added?
• What about when the development reaches 1,000 or 2,000 homes?
• Would it be better to divide the new properties between existing rounds?
• Could several surrounding rounds be rebalanced?
• At what stage might an additional vehicle or crew become necessary?

Modelling can also consider changes to service frequencies, operational territories and fleet configurations. Importantly, the most efficient answer may not be to create a separate round for a new housing development.

Collection rounds often evolve over many years. Housing growth provides an opportunity to look at the wider network and ask whether properties could be redistributed to create better-balanced workloads across several rounds. RouteSmart combines advanced routing algorithms with GIS and location data to support this strategic planning, allowing councils to compare options before making operational changes.

Planning for Growth Rather Than Reacting to It

One advantage of housing growth is that, unlike many operational pressures, it can often be seen coming. Large developments may take years to complete, and properties are commonly released in phases, creating a changing pattern of demand over time. This gives local authorities an opportunity to develop a phased collection strategy alongside the development itself.

A collection model that works when the first 200 homes are occupied may not be appropriate when there are 1,000. Equally, creating a new round too early could leave a vehicle and crew significantly underutilised. Scenario modelling can help identify these tipping points.

Rather than repeatedly asking, “Where can we fit the next group of properties?”, authorities can take a longer-term view: “What should our collection network look like when this community is fully developed?”

That shift in thinking can help avoid a series of short-term adjustments that eventually result in inefficient or poorly balanced rounds.

Housing Growth in Practice

While new development is rarely the only reason for undertaking a route optimisation exercise, it can be an important trigger. As properties are added and communities expand, routes that were originally designed around a different number and distribution of households may no longer provide the best balance of workloads, resources and travel.

Reviewing routes as part of wider growth planning gives councils an opportunity to consider these pressures before they become embedded in day-to-day operations. Reading Borough Council, North Yorkshire Council and Wiltshire Council have all worked with Integrated Skills’ consultancy team, utilising RouteSmart Optimize to create new routes. Housing growth formed a part of the operational case for reviewing existing arrangements.

From Housing Forecasts to Operational Plans

Authorities need to understand what their existing operation looks like, how well current rounds are performing and how different growth scenarios could affect resources. Integrated Skills’ Professional Services team can support councils in assessing existing collection rounds and translating housing forecasts into practical operational plans.

GIS and location analysis can help identify where development will take place and how it relates to the existing network. Route optimisation can then assess different collection arrangements, while scenario modelling allows authorities to compare future options. This could include examining when rounds should be rebalanced, whether additional vehicles will be required or how different collection frequencies would affect resources.

The result is a stronger evidence base for decisions about future fleet, crews, rounds and service structures. This can also help waste teams make the case for resources internally. Rather than waiting until additional demand creates overtime, capacity issues or service pressures, officers can demonstrate when and why additional resources are likely to be required.

Building Services Around Future Communities

The Government's housing ambitions mean that growth will remain an important consideration for local authorities. Its National Housing Delivery Fund alone provides £5 billion in capital grant funding for infrastructure and land between 2026 and 2030 as part of the wider ambition to deliver 1.5 million new homes.

Waste and recycling infrastructure needs to form part of the conversation, and housing development should therefore be considered an operational planning issue long before the first bins appear outside new properties.

Planning teams know where communities are growing. Waste teams know how collections operate. GIS can show how new developments fit within the existing network, while SmartSuite can help provide a consistent operational picture and RouteSmart can model how services may need to change.

Bringing those elements together gives authorities the opportunity to move from reactive route changes towards long-term service planning. Because the question isn't simply how to collect waste from the next 100 homes, it’s how to design an efficient and resilient collection service for the community that will eventually be there.

The post New Housing, New Rounds: Planning Waste Collections for Growing Communities appeared first on Integrated Skills.

Each year the seasons bring waves of consumer behaviour that create distinct challenges for waste collection and disposal services. Halloween, Easter, and Christmas are major events in the UK’s retail calendar, and their environmental footprint grows alongside consumer spending.

For local authorities, these celebrations translate into short but intense surges in waste volumes, often dominated by food, packaging, and disposable decorations that strain collection schedules, budgets, and recycling systems.

Here we’ll be highlighting the struggles Local Authorities face when handling these waste surges, as well as the environmental impact of consumer behaviour.

Halloween: A Frightening Rise in Residual Waste

Halloween is one of the fastest-growing seasonal events in the UK. In 2023, consumer spending reached an estimated £1 billion, a figure that has quadrupled in just a decade. Behind the fun and festivities, however, is a growing mountain of seasonal waste.

A recent waste composition analysis, we here at Integrated Skills revealed that in the first week of November 2024, households across six local authorities put out an average of 0.3 kg of pumpkins (here’s a reminder of how to dispose of pumpkins), decorations, and spent fireworks in their residual bins (despite food waste collections being available).

It sounds like a small amount, but as Project Director Stuart Henshaw noted, “For a typical authority of 80,000 households, that’s an additional 24 tonnes of Halloween waste. Scaled nationally, this equates to over 8,500 tonnes of residual Halloween waste to collect and dispose of.”

This data illustrates how small, one-off consumer choices can create significant operational impacts. Local authorities face not only extra collection rounds and landfill costs, but also public confusion over what can and cannot be recycled or composted. For example, while pumpkins are fully compostable, they often end up in the residual stream due to lack of awareness or convenience.

While Halloween is now the UK’s third-largest retail event, Easter falls into a close second place.

Eggs, Chocolate and Mountains of Waste

Despite its family-friendly image, the environmental impact of Easter with its packaging and food waste is striking:

• Around 8,000 tonnes of packaging are generated annually from Easter egg products.
• Roughly 3,000 tonnes of chocolate go un-eaten and discarded.
• Food waste spikes, with millions of hot cross buns, roast potatoes, and vegetable portions ending up in bins after family meals.

These figures highlight how short-lived consumption patterns, driven by marketing and convenience, continue to undermine waste reduction goals.

For local authorities, Easter’s challenge lies in collecting and processing hugely mixed waste streams: plastic inserts, cardboard boxes, and foil wrappers, all produced in vast quantities but often contaminated with food residues that make recycling all the more difficult.

Christmas: The Ultimate Test

No other time of year tests the capacity of local waste services like Christmas. Between December and early January, UK households collectively produce up to 30% more waste than at any other time of year.

For context:

• In London, households throw out an extra five bags of rubbish each, adding roughly 29,000 tonnes of waste in this one city alone.
• The country discards around 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging that goes unrecycled.
• More than one billion Christmas cards are thrown away annually.
• Food waste increases by about 30% compared to the rest of the year.

The shift to online shopping has further complicated Christmas waste management. Nearly half of all Christmas purchases are now made online, driving surges in cardboard boxes, plastic mailing bags, and filler materials as items are shipped individually. A DS Smith study found that 941 million plastic mailing bags were used by UK retailers in 2024 – that’s around 2.6 million every day.

While convenient for consumers, these trends create headaches for local authorities. They are left to process higher volumes of mixed packaging and manage overflowing recycling bins. Compounding the problem are the inevitable post-Christmas returns (especially true for the fashion sector), which generate additional transport emissions and waste when items are damaged or unsellable.

The Cost to Local Authorities

Each seasonal spike translates into tangible operational and financial impacts. Increased waste volumes require:

• Additional collection rounds, often with premium seasonal labour costs attached.
• Greater sorting and processing capacity, particularly for recyclables.
• More contamination in recycling streams as residents rush to clear festive waste.
• Higher disposal costs, especially for residual waste that cannot be recycled.

For many authorities already managing tight budgets, these short-term spikes can have long-term implications. Disposal costs rise, recycling targets are harder to meet, and collection crews face heavier workloads during periods of adverse weather and high demand.

Changing Habits and Shared Responsibility

The seasonal waste challenge highlights a broader truth: public behaviour directly shapes local waste outcomes. Convenience, habit, and awareness play powerful roles in determining whether materials are recycled, composted, or landfilled.

Encouragingly, there are signs of change. Surveys show rising public interest in sustainable packaging, with many consumers saying they would avoid brands that use excessive or non-recyclable materials. Retailers are also beginning to introduce “right-size” packaging and promote preloved or second-hand gift options.

However, there is still a significant gap between intent and action. Even when residents are aware of the sustainable option, it is not always the easiest one. Collection systems must therefore be complemented by clear communication, consistent recycling infrastructure, and behavioural nudges that make the sustainable choice the default.

Working Towards Smarter Seasonal Waste Management

For local authorities, tackling seasonal waste effectively requires data-led planning and predictive insight. By analysing waste composition and collection data (something Integrated Skills supports through its advanced Waste Composition Analysis and Route Management solutions) councils can:

• Anticipate seasonal surges and adjust collection schedules.
• Target communications to reduce contamination and promote food waste recycling.
• Monitor the effectiveness of interventions year-on-year.
• Plan future infrastructure investment based on accurate evidence, not assumptions.

Seasonal waste will never disappear entirely - celebrations are part of community life. But by aligning data, policy, and public engagement, local authorities can reduce its impact, cut unnecessary costs, and move closer to a truly circular model of resource use.

For Waste Composition Analysis enquiries please get in touch below!

The post The Impact of Seasonal Waste on Local Authorities appeared first on Integrated Skills.

Under the Government’s Simpler Recycling reforms, the UK is headed for a new era in food waste collection. Local Authorities have been tasked with arranging a food waste collection service by March 2025 for businesses, March 2026 for households and March 2027 for micro-firms.

The reforms sound like a positive step towards Net Zero, but there is substantial concern among Locals Authorities that funding gaps will put a stop to the changes before they even begin. The logistics of servicing England’s varied housing stock may also prove challenging.

Here we’ll be outlining the proposed changes (including why, on paper, the changes would be fantastic for the environment), while also examining the issues faced by Local Authorities in implementing the Government’s plans.

Why is Food Waste Top of the Agenda?

According to the most recent research by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK households currently produce around 6.4 million tonnes of food waste per year. They put it into perspective beautifully:

“If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter after China and the USA.”

Obviously, the ideal situation would be to simply reduce the amount of food wasted, but until that issue can be tackled significantly, the collection and proper treatment of food waste is imperative.

Back in 2020, DEFRA ran a consultation into the effect of kerbside food waste collection. They found that "if all local authorities provided kerbside food waste collection, the amount of food waste collected would increase by 1.35 million tonnes by 2029 - reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 1.25 million tonnes per year."

The Government has committed to reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 (against a 2015 baseline) in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

The Funding Challenge

So, we know why it’s important. But how can Local Authorities make this happen during a time of over-stretched budgets? The District Councils’ Network (DCN) have identified an average budget deficit of £210,000 per district council.

As detailed by Let’s Recycle, the funding gap will mean that councils will struggle to acquire the vehicles and containers required to enact the new collections. This expected shortfall doesn’t take into account the funding required to expand depots, as the Government has indicated that they will not be funding these requirements.

Local authorities are right to be concerned, and surprised, as the expectation has always been that Government will cover the “reasonable costs of new burdens”, which certainly doesn’t seem to be the case here.

Cllr Sarah Nelmes (environment spokesperson of the DCN) summarised the funding issues:

“The Government’s Simpler Recycling plan will mean significant service changes at many councils. New waste lorries, bins and, in some cases, larger depots will be required, all at great expense. The funding currently on offer is nowhere near enough…”

The Logistical Challenges

The Government’s Simpler Recycling press release states that the reforms “will apply to all homes in England, including flats. Similar measures will apply to non-household municipal premises, including businesses, hospitals, schools and universities.”

Regarding non-household premises, they stated that they will be “launching a four-week consultation on expanding the definition of non-household municipal premises – so that places of worship, prisons, charity shops and residential hostels could also be covered by the rules.”

Waste management is already tricky business when it comes to blocks of flats. The new food waste requirements will mean individual caddies and liners for residents to keep in their kitchens and a shared food waste store for them to empty their liners into throughout the week. The cost of these supplies will be extensive and ongoing. The scheme also requires a commitment from residents to change their habits and make almost daily trips down to a shared container.

Fife Council recently ran a 12-week food collection trial for high rise blocks in their area. Their objectives were to:

• Maximise participation in food waste service
• Learn about barriers and enablers
• Trial communication materials
• Gather insights for food waste service rollout across high and midrise properties

They added touch-free pedal bins to properties across Fife and provided residents with individual caddies. The main complaints received when they ran a survey were that the liners broke too easily, the caddies often smelled and that getting them down to the communal bin was challenging. They also found that participants struggled to get hold of caddy liners in the local shops.

The positives reported, were that refuse bins needed emptying less and stayed cleaner. Residents also reported that the refuse chutes in the building were cleaner and less smelly too.

Fife Council found that participation was closely linked to outreach, with food waste weight peaking during weeks where residents were contacted or engaged in some way. This shows the level of commitment (and funding) needed for local authorities to encourage engagements in their communities.

The Effect on Local Authorities

The food waste services now required will create an entirely new waste stream for many Local Authorities. This will mean changes throughout the waste management plan; from new vehicles to household starter kit distribution, to public engagement and upgraded depots.

One of Integrated Skills’ clients, Guernsey Waste, recently presented at the National Food Waste Conference in London. Their presentation really drove home the level of change required for them when they began their food waste collections in 2018. The necessary changes will be similar for most Local Authorities across the country.

Guernsey is a genuine success story for the implementation of food waste collection. Their key areas of consideration included:

• Infrastructure (waste transfer station, removal of non-organic material, pumpable liquid sent for anaerobic digestion)
• Collections (parishes and contractors, weekly collection, different sizes and constraints, charges for residual, communal arrangements)
• Equipment (starter kits for households, use of liners, distribution network)
• Public Engagement (drop-ins, leaflets, social media, office resources)

Their approach saw a 92%-95% participation rate by 2020, resulting in the collection of 3349 tonnes of household food waste and 1534 tonnes of commercial food waste in 2022. That’s a 33.6% increase in collections since 2019.

Guernsey’s advice for success?

• Know your starting position & measure your success
• Communication with all key stakeholders
• Get feedback early on & act upon it
• Ensure you plan enough time to engage and roll out service
• Determine possible incentives

That informed starting position and continuous measurement of success is where Integrated Skills can help. It was a pleasure to work with Guernsey for their plans and to continue to support them in their great efforts.

It remains to be seen how England’s Local Authorities will rise to this challenge. We feel that the issue of funding will be a genuine barrier to success, and we hope to see the Government acknowledge their responsibility to work with current pricing data and to meet their obligations in funding new burdens.

The post England’s New Food Waste Plan – Will it be Countrywide? appeared first on Integrated Skills.

With Government recently announcing capital funding for local authority’s food waste services, our next Webinar is timely. We will look at factors to be considered when planning a Food Waste Collection Service.

In his next webinar, Stuart Henshaw will be joined by Mark Mohun from Newcastle City Council, Andy Clewes & James Baker from Integrated Skills.

Mark Mohun has worked in local government for almost 25 years. Mark is an experienced RouteSmart user within the waste and resources sector. He digitally maintains hundreds of frontline routes to ensure effective and efficient services for the City. Mark has been at the forefront of digital transformation in local government service planning and delivery throughout his career. He is currently preparing operational plans for the introduction of ‘Simpler Recycling’, which includes preparations for Food Waste service at Newcastle City Council.

Stuart will also be joined by colleagues, Andy Clewes and James Baker, from Integrated Skills. Andy & James have supported over 20 client authorities with both go-live food waste routes and ‘what-if’ food waste scenarios. Andy & James will discuss some of the lessons learned through their broad experience.

The webinar will be informal and discuss some of the key considerations, tips on what to avoid, and what not to forget. This free webinar will suit Service and Operations Managers, and those who will be involved in planning for the roll-out of food waste services at your authority. There will be opportunity for Q&A.

The post Webinar: Planning for Food Waste Services – Best Practice appeared first on Integrated Skills.

An astonishing amount of food is wasted each year in the UK; to be exact, almost 12 million tonnes goes into landfill. But the damage doesn’t stop there; once in the landfill, decomposing materials generate methane, which only further contributes to the global warming problem.
However, when food is diverted from landfill and recycled, valuable products can be created. One way to divert food waste from landfill is to compost it.

Composting is most successful when only certain items are included. Some of these are egg shells, coffee grounds and tea bags, grass cutting and pruning waste and vegetable and fruit scraps. Items like meat, fish, dairy products, cat and dog excrement and diseased plants should never be added to a compost pile.

Recent years has seen a significant rise in local authority food waste collection services, and the process to manage the collected waste is burdensome.

Large Scale Composting: A Managed Process

Composting can take place in a bin placed on a residential property (known as in-vessel composting or IVC), or inside a composting facility after collection from domestic properties. In either situation, composting is a process by which all conditions must be controlled and managed though for large scale composting proper management is far more critical.

How Domestic Food Waste is Composted

Raw and biodegradable food waste is broken down by fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes. These grow over the compost material and breaks down waste, which produces heat and accelerates micro-organism activity.

Once all the sugar and starch in the material has been exhausted, the temperature of the pile decreases until it is ideal for the growth of fungi, who are responsible for breaking down any woody materials like twigs.

Before Composting Begins

Most food waste in the UK is sourced from collections by the local authority, whether it is mixed with garden waste or not. Before it is sent through for composting, this material must be screened to ensure it doesn’t contain any contaminants like metal, plastic or similar items.

The Start of the Composting Process

Once any contaminants have been removed, the material is then shredded to uniform size before being transferred to the first of two ‘barriers’ which can be in bay or tunnel form. It is in this first barrier that composting begins. The compost simply sits in the first barrier, and as it does so, existing micro-organisms begin breaking down the material. As they do this, nutrients are released and the temperature rises to between 60 and 70°C, which is high enough to kill any pathogens or seeds.

Material Transfer

Following the time it spends in the first barrier, the waste is transferred to a second barrier where it will remain for 7 days to 3 weeks. This ensures that the compost reaches required temperatures to meet regulations. Careful monitoring and control of temperature, moisture and oxygen level occurs at this stage as well as the initial stage in order to ensure that the material is completely sanitised.

Stabilisation Period

Once the process of sanitisation has completed, the compost must go through what is known as a ‘maturing’ stage. This simply means that the compost is either left in an enclosed area or in front of an open window or door for between 10 and 14 weeks. Doing this ensures that the compost is stable enough to qualify for the next step, which is screening.

Screening

Once stabilisation of the compost has been confirmed, it can then be screened for certain grades of products to be sold for use in landscaping, by gardeners, in agriculture and on brownfield sites. Compost that is ready for use as a product has a crumbly consistency and smells slightly earthy.

Composting at Home

The ideal residential compost heap is one metre square by one metre high and is enclosed in some kind of brick or timber structure so that it doesn’t get rained on. Because regular turning of the compost will be required, a space should be left at the front for this purpose.

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