What's in your bin?

In September 2009 WastesWork Ltd carried out a series of waste analyses on the black, blue and green household bins for the council. In addition, a survey was carried out at one of the community recycling centres (CRCs) looking at residual waste only. 

For the kerbside collections of household waste and recycling, sample areas were selected across the borough and collections were made over two weeks to capture a full cycle of waste, recycling and compost. 

For the sample of the CRC, residual waste from 50 randomly selected visitors to Gatewarth CRC was hand-sorted and surveyed.

Household sample selection

The streets included in the kerbside collection sampling were selected to reflect the socio-economics of the borough. Proportional average data can then be calculated. The total sample covered 200 households.

ACORN 1 – ‘Affluent achievers’

ACORN 1 households make up 26.3% of Warrington households. Waste tends to be rich in newspapers and magazines, they may also work from home producing more recyclable paper. They dispose of high amounts of non recyclable paper i.e. kitchen roll, and eat large amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables so have a great deal of compostable kitchen waste. They have very little packaged food e.g. bottled or canned food. Their waste often contains high weights of recyclable material. In Warrington these samples were taken from Woolston and Padgate.

ACORN 3 – ‘Comfortably off’

ACORN 3 households make up 38.3% of Warrington households. There are two distinct ends to this category. Firstly retired couples who usually produce the least amount of waste and are very good at recycling. Participation rates in schemes are good. The other type of household in this category is households with children. They produce a lot of waste. Parents are comfortably off and can be disinterested recyclers, they often feel it is not their job to separate materials for recycling. In Warrington these samples were taken from Lymm and Sankey.

ACORN 4 – ‘Moderate means’

ACORN 4 households make up 13.2% of Warrington households. This category is made up of either mature singles / couples disposing of small amounts of waste or large families disposing of large amounts of waste. A lot of this waste is not so easily recycled e.g. jars and tins that need to be rinsed before they are recycled. Green issues often have a low priority in their lives. In Warrington these samples were taken from Oakwood (inner).

ACORN 5 – ‘Hard pressed’

ACORN 5 households make up 22% of Warrington households. These are the least affluent households and are often the worst recyclers. They dispose of a lot of glass jars, food and drink cans and plastic bottles. They buy less expensive food with often short shelf lives or buy one get one free which results in large quantities of food waste. In Warrington these samples were taken from Westy (inner).

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the properties and residents that agreed to be involved in this study. This information will help us plan for the future and develop new schemes to help boost recycling and minimise waste within Warrington.

View the final Waste composition study for Warrington Borough Council - Sept 2009. 

Last updated 18/02/2010 11:24:01

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