‘People are in the habit of taking glass to bring banks’

The final three remaining bring bank sites closed in May 2023.

It meant that glass drops-offs at the HWRC went from between 18 and 14 tonnes of glass annually over the previous four years, to 195 tonnes last year.

Guernsey Waste business support manager Ben Henry said that an increase in glass had been expected following the closure of bring banks, but the scale was unknown.

‘This is so much about habits and routines,’ he said.

‘And people are in the habit of taking their glass to bring banks. But to see a trend, we do need more time. We hope to understand it better by this time next year.’

He thought this might have continued with people taking glass to the HWRC.

He added that from speaking to islanders, some liked to physically drop their glass off and to demonstrate their recycling credentials.

However, he urged people to use the glass collection services available.

Household improvements in a post-Covid world have kept disposal rates at the HWRC stubbornly high.

Around 3,000 tonnes were dropped off last year – treble the annual total prior to 2019.

‘[This is] a significant factor in the reduction in the headline recycling rate,’ the report stated.

‘The majority is wood, furniture and other bulky items that are unable to be reused or recycled.’

Mr Henry said that post-Covid rises in waste disposal at the HWRC had not been expected to continue for so long.

‘We need to do some more work to see what is going on,’ he said.

‘We want to promote a message of waste reduction, but we need to know where that waste is coming from.’

There were 2,506 tonnes of materials taken to the HWRC for recycling – 274 tonnes or 12% higher than in 2022.

This follows a general rise in kerbside recycling bags being taken there, which can be dropped off for free.

There were 124 tonnes of blue bags dropped off last year, compared with 103 in 2022 and 81 in 2021. Similarly there were 262 tonnes of clear bags, up from 224 tonnes in 2022 and 192 tonnes in 2021.

The amount of food waste being dropped off has also been steadily rising, with 218 tonnes last year, compared with 164 tonnes in 2022 and 2021.

Mr Henry said that recycling trucks went past everyone’s homes and he would urge islanders to use those services, rather than taking them to the HWRC.

However, he said there were no plans to deter people from using the HWRC – such as the fact that black bags are more expensive to drop off at the centre than to put out on the kerbside. Instead, the focus would be on education.

‘More of carrot, rather than stick,’ he said.