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LATEST DATA

Collection

Materials collection systems can be kerbside-based, or require the householder to transport the materials to a collection point such as a bring/drop-off or civic amenity site. Data on employment for these systems is complicated by the fact that these collection systems can be managed and undertaken by a local authority, or contracted to a private company or a community sector group. Staff working for any of these entities, with the exception of the community sector bodies, will usually perform the normal waste collection as well. So data collection on waste management is too general to identify the number of people or even full-time equivalents employed specifically in recycling collection.

The following table combines data from the DETR's Digest of Environmental Statistics (DoES) and CIPFA's statistics for tonnes of materials recycled. The DoES data also presents the tonnages of the materials according to the different collection systems. This information has been included to give an overall view of the proportion of each material captured in the different types of collection. Although it does not help directly in the calculation of jobs in recycling collection, this profile could be factored into employment projections for the design of future recycling collection systems.

The last column shows the ratio of the DoES tonnages to the CIPFA tonnages, further illustrating poor data collection. It is worth repeating that these two sources are the most comprehensive and regular data collection systems that exist in the UK, and yet they can still have marked differences between them.

Table 4 - Comparison between DETR's Digest of Environmental Statistics (1995/6) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (1997/8) figures for household materials recycled

* figures grossed up to 100% based upon an 80% response rate

**this is a total of DoES data on paper, card and mixed paper and card

Data collected by Save Waste and Prosper⁸ (SWAP), in 1997 gave the following estimates on employee numbers based upon the different types of collection systems. The data comes with various issues that need further consideration relating to, among others, the delineation of employees' involvement in recycling, the design of the kerbside collection system, the materials collected and frequency of collection. The data below gives a very rough estimate of employment figures in the collection of the materials listed [page 4]:

Kerbside collection schemes

Many variables influence the annual tonnage per employee collected In these types of schemes, for example, size of round, type of collection vehicle, population density, spread of materials collected and frequency of collection. Data collected by SWAP gave an average of 11.5 employees per kerbside collection scheme. In 1997, 239⁹ of 478 local authorities had dry recyclables kerbside collections. Applying this average to these figures, there were 2,750 people employed in the kerbside collection of recyclables.

Bring/Drop-off sites

A SWAP survey of local authorities gave an average of 3.5 employees to manage, administer and undertake collections for these types of schemes. Based on the assumption that this figure of 3.5 is representative of all bring systems operated by local authorities in the UK, it can then be estimated that the 478 local authorities that operate a bring system employ approximately 1,700 people.

Civic amenity sites

Civic amenity sites are generally the responsibility of County Councils and data from the Councils is not held centrally. SWAP's survey of local authorities highlighted a rough estimate averaging one full-time equivalent employee per civic amenity site. This figure is misleading, and possibly unrepresentative, as civic amenity sites usually have on-site staff involved in sorting the materials, and generally managing the site, as well as administrative support from the Waste Disposal Authority. Regardless of this, it is worth using this figure to establish employment from civic amenity sites. There are approximately 954¹⁰ static sites in the UK, so it can be assumed that about 1,000 people are employed to operate the recycling activities of such sites.

Table 5: Number of jobs in the collection of household recycling materials

Sorting

Sorting of recycling materials is another complicated phase of materials recycling, dependent upon a range of factors similar to collection, i.e. population density, type of collection vehicle, materials being recycled etc. Sorting of the materials can happen in a number of ways at different locations. They can be sorted at the source (kerbside, bring/drop-off site or civic amenity site) at the time of collection, partially sorted at source and further sorted elsewhere, or fully sorted elsewhere. Off-site sorting occurs at a materials recovery facility (MRF), where materials are bulked up and prepared for transport to reprocessors. They are flexible in design and should be managed according to the type of recycling collection they serve. For instance, some local authorities run commingled collections where residents put their recyclables in a plastic bag in their normal bin and both are collected together. Both types of waste are transferred to an MRF where they are separated and sorted. The synergy between the two processes - collection and sorting - is such that the efficiencies gained during the collection phase are lost at the sorting end. Similarly, a collection which sorts the materials at the kerbside will be much less efficient here, but will achieve higher efficiency at the sorting stage at the MRF.

Little comparative data exists on efficiency levels of different types of MRFs and their design. A 1997 SWAP survey of 13 MRFs gave the following results in tonnages per material recycled, total employees and tonnage per employee figures. According to SWAP, the MRFs are representative of the range of over 100 UK facilities - from large, commercial operations to small, community-run operations which have a comparatively smaller annual throughput of material.

Table 6: Annual averages of employee processing tonnages in MRFs

A 1993 Department of the Environment report¹¹ detailed labour costs in MRF operations, giving a breakdown of numbers of employees according to level of technology used at the MRF:

Table 7: Relationship between level of technology at a MRF and employee numbers

Source: DETR/DTI; Household Waste Management in the UK, Some examples of current practice; p 15

Again, there are a wider number of variables that influence tonnage per employee results beyond the technology levels of the MRF. Efficiency levels will also depend upon the level of sorting that has occurred before the materials reach the MRF, levels of inputs, and how many and which materials are accepted at the MRF. It is difficult to distinguish the levels of technology used at the MRFs in SWAP's data, and in the above table. However, the table does show a marked difference in annual tonnages per employee between high- and low-technology MRFs.

A more recent DETR/DTI report¹² details two case studies on MRFs, both segregated (or "clean") and unsegregated (or "dirty"). To illustrate employment at MRFs, the table below gives a breakdown of the numbers of employees involved in the range of activities undertaken at a MRF. The clean, high-technology MRF example from the DETR/DTI report - the Portsmouth facility - and the Bluewater Recycling Association in Ontario, Canada, where recycling rates of up to 60% have been achieved, illustrate this.

Table 8: Employee profile and materials capacity for two clean MRFs

Source: Bluewater data from personal communication

Portsmouth data from Valpak's Project P.R.I.M.E. report and personal communication

According to Hampshire Waste Services, the County serviced by the Portsmouth MRF, the two less technologically-advanced MRFs in the County have annual tonnage/employee figures of 315 and 333 kilograms. 19 employees process 6,000 tonnes, and 24 employees process 8,000 tonnes of materials respectively.

Taking the tonnage/employee average from SWAP's data and applying it to an average of tonnage of materials recycled reported in the DoES and from CIPFA, the following employment figures result:

Table 9: Number of jobs in the sorting of household recycling materials

*average of DoES and CIPFA data on page 5 report

Reprocessing

It is at the reprocessing stage that the employment potential in the recycling industry can be considered according to each material. The data below was collected by SWAP in 1997.

Paper and card

In 1997, 12 million tonnes of paper were manufactured, 5 million tonnes (41%) of which was of recycled origin. The paper and board manufacturing industry employs 23,000 full-time employees, so 9,400 (41%) of these can be attributed to reprocessing¹³. This figure suggests that each employee can reprocess 530 tonnes per year. However, it is not clear whether the recycled content identified by the industry was from in-house or post-consumer sources. This data was not available.

Glass

Figures collected from six UK glass reprocessors suggest that an employee can reprocess 3,200 tonnes of glass per year. In 1997, a total of 511,000 tonnes of glass was reprocessed¹⁴, suggesting that 160 people are employed to reprocess glass. However, this figure appears conservative as the number of employees working at the glass reprocessors contacted was 200.

Steel

There are a large number of steel reprocessors in the UK ranging dramatically in the size of their operations and the number of people they employ. However, only two plants have the facilities to enable steel to be separated from tin plate (the material used in steel cans o stop it from corroding and contaminating the food product). In 1997, 57 people were employed at these two plants, where 120,000 tonnes of steel packaging are processed per year. The plants have a similar reprocessing rate of 2,100 tonnes per employee per year.

Aluminium

The Alcan recycling plant in Warrington is currently the destination for almost all post-consumer aluminium packaging, of which drinks cans constitute the largest proportion. The plant has a total throughput of approximately 150,000 tonnes per year, 70,000 tonnes of which is attributed to aluminium drinks cans. Alcan employs 75 people to administer and reprocess this 70,000 tonnes, which equates to a reprocessing figure of 933 tonnes/per employee per year.

Plastic

In 1997, 100,000 tonnes of plastic material was reprocessed, 90% of which was from a commercial origin¹⁵. Four plastic reprocessors were contacted about the throughput of packaging material they reprocessed in that year. Based upon the data collected, the average reprocessing volume per employee per year is 150 tonnes, so around 70 jobs are required to reprocess the 10,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic processed in 1997.

Table 10: Number of jobs in the reprocessing of household recycling materials

* includes administration ("white-collar") and reprocessing ("blue collar") jobs

"Actual" current employment in recycling

If the DTI's SICs are used as a sliding rule on employment in recycling, then it is most likely that reprocessors are the companies that identify recycling as their main activity. The above total of 9,765 is still in keeping with the 1997 DTI figure of 9,900 jobs in recycling. However, it does not reflect the extra almost 7,000 jobs in collection and sorting or the community sector's 1997 estimate of 500 full-time jobs. These bring the total above 17,200 for 1997, nearer the 1993 DTI optimistic estimate of 20% of waste management jobs.

Table 11: Current jobs in collection, sorting and reprocessing of household recycling materials

It is worth noting that these employment figures relate mostly to those materials found in the typical household recycling scheme. Textiles recycling has not been addressed in this report, and according to an industry spokesperson, there are 15,000 jobs¹⁶ in this sector alone. Organics recycling also has not been addressed. It is also worth considering the impact that the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive will have on recycling employment.

[⁸ Save Waste and Prosper prepared a research report, Employment in the UK Recycling Industry, for the National Recycling Forum (NRF). This report is available on the Waste Watch website at www.wastewatch.org.uk

⁹ Local authority statistics found in The National Recycling Directory (Waste Watch/LARAC)

¹⁰ The number of Civic Amenity sites in the UK was gathered from the National Recycling Directory (Waste Watch/LARAC)

¹¹ Department of the Environment; The Technical Aspects of Controlled Waste Management, Evaluation of Centralised Resource Recovery Facilities; CWM/085/93; November 1993

¹² DETR/DTI; Household Waste Management in the UK, Some examples of current practice; May 1999

¹³ Due to the way in which the industry is structured most companies use recovered paper/board as feedstock so it is difficult to attribute one employee in a particular company to the recycling process.

¹⁴ British Glass, personal communication, December 1998.

¹⁵ Valueplast Ltd. Personal communication, December 1998.

¹⁶ Personal communication 1999]

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