Dustcart-free future? London recycling set for an underground revolution following lead of Stockholm, New York and Doha
Europe’s largest automated waste collection system is being installed at 420-acre Barking Riverside, close to Barking town centre.
This is the first large-scale project in the UK to adopt infrastructure that is already common in some other countries.
Barking Riverside will have 11,000 homes, workplaces and leisure facilities within a new urban quarter that would usually require 19,000 waste bins.
However, the Envac system being used replaces these with just 460 “waste outlets” and a network of underground pipes to vacuum waste to a local recycling plant, which is also an ecology centre.
Rubbish lorries should be a thing of the past.
The masterplan, by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, has streets designed for walking and cycling, while the carbon emissions from recycling vehicles will be eradicated.
Matt Carpen, project director for Barking Riverside says: “We’ve learned from major European cities, such as Stockholm, and integrated futureproof technology to promote sustainability and liveability for our residents.”
WE'RE CATCHING UP AT LAST
First in the UK with Envac was Wembley Park, Quintain’s regeneration of 85 acres, where it is claimed the system can collect the waste of 10,000 homes in minutes and carbon emissions from dustcarts have been slashed.
But such progress has been lacking for years in Britain, whereas — according to a 2014 report by the London Waste and Recycling Board — new homes have been built in many cities around the world using the technology.
Examples of vacuum and pneumatic systems were cited in New York, Doha, Stockholm and Brisbane, begging the question why we in the UK have done so little to update our waste infrastructure.
One clear reason is the scale of investment needed to install such systems. With local authority spending already so constrained, the possibility of the new systems being rolled out across the country still seems like a pipe dream.
A more modest, yet ingenious approach is being tested in Cambridge.
Eddington is a 370-acre community being built by the University of Cambridge to encourage researchers and key workers to stay in the city.
Nine teams of architects are working to provide thousands of new homes and community facilities such as schools, shops and research centres.
Eddington has a pioneering sustainable strategy, which includes a new underground waste collection system.
Heather Topel, project director, says: “A huge benefit is the removal of wheelie bins to dramatically improve the streetscape and remove the need for weekly collections.”
So far 500 people have moved into homes in the first phase which are equipped with specially designed bins in the kitchens, access to composting facilities and the new waste system where instead of 3,000 individual household bins, there are 450 underground bins.
Communal bins are located on the street no further than 55 yards from each home. Rubbish drops down into an underground store and when the container is 80 per cent full a specially adapted recycling lorry collects the waste.
LONDON'S UNIQUE PROBLEM
The problem in the capital remains that a large proportion of the population lives in flats, where it is harder to deal with waste and to recycle: half as much waste gets recycled from apartment buildings compared to houses.
Currently 37 per cent of housing is purpose-built flats, and by 2030 flats are set to make up half of the city’s accommodation.
Resource London, which represents the capital’s waste authorities, wants developers to come up with new solutions to encourage flat dwellers to recycle.
Peabody housing association, managing 55,000 London homes, has tested “intelligent” rubbish chutes at a block in Aldgate East.
Such chutes are common in private residences — for example at St George Wharf in Vauxhall. The idea is that you press a button to divert the waste through the chute to the appropriate bin.
Sounds good in theory, but the system needs regular maintenance and can easily become blocked with bad and hard-to-recycle rubbish items such as takeaway pizza boxes.
Unfortunately, Peabody has drawn the conclusion that design solutions are not the answer: “We need to start by improving recycling rates.”
Last month Peabody and Resource London launched an in-depth, two-year study to find out why flat dwellers are so bad at recycling.
Apparently researchers will spend time in residents’ homes to “learn how recycling fits into their lives and what motivates them to recycle”.
DON'T BLAME DIRTY HABITS
The research reinforces the belief that the problem is down to individual behaviour.
Yet examples from around the world — in cities such as Stockholm where recycling is far more widespread and efficient — suggest the problem is not so much people with bad habits as bad infrastructure.
In the meantime, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is proposing that local authorities should cut back rubbish collection services even further to put more pressure on householders to recycle, which makes no sense at all.
Isn’t it time we put wheelie bins in the dustbin of history?
Vicky Richardson is associate director at the London School of Architecture.