Transport implications of bring-site recycling

Local authorities are striving to meet their recycling targets by providing householders with a range of recycling opportunities within the community. Household waste recycling centres (HWRCs or manned recycling drop-off centres) and ‘bring-sites’ (unmanned recycling drop-off centres) allow householders to dispose of a range of items that may not be catered for at the kerbside. The current and future transport implications of these facilities as trip generators are not widely understood. Using a database of HWRC visitor origins (n = 7135), this paper estimates the current annual mileage and environmental impacts associated with current visitor trips to HWRCs, given the regulations that govern their use, and identifies how this could be reduced if a series of bring-sites in the community were enhanced. The 4 677 000 annual visitors to the 26 HWRCs in Hampshire (UK) generated 40 million km and approximately 1873 t of carbon dioxide (CO2, as carbon). A network of 104 bring-sites serviced by 78 refuse collection vehicles able to take green waste, operating in addition to the facilities at the 26 HWRCs, could save approximately 8·5 million km (21%) of travel per annum (369 t of carbon dioxide as carbon).