Anglesey's new vehicles do more with less

Municipal contractor Biffa has deployed a new fleet of specialist collection vehicles worth nearly £2 million to support Isle of Anglesey County Council’s plans to increase recycling on the Welsh island and to reduce costs.

The authority is performing well with a recycling and composting rate of 56%. Anglesey’s collection system is based on weekly collections of food waste and dry recyclables through a one-pass collection system, and alternate week collections of refuse and green waste in separate wheeled bins.

With the new recycling fleet, all based on DAF LF45 chassis with Romaquip Kerb-Sort bodies, the same vehicle can collect food waste and dry recyclables at the same time, maximising collection efficiency and reducing both road miles and diesel consumption.

Anglesey’s new recycling fleet for collecting food waste and dry recyclables has been reduced by a third, from 15 to ten vehicles (eight are long wheelbase, one mid wheelbase and one short wheel base). It is estimated that operational mileage will be reduced by around 80,000 kilometres annually, saving some 15,000 litres of diesel and reducing exhaust and CO2 emissions by nearly 50 tonnes as a result.

Meirion Edwards, chief waste management officer of Isle of Anglesey County Council, said the fleet investment will provide the best vehicle efficiencies for the years ahead as the council and Biffa work with local residents to achieve and surpass a 60% recycling and composting rate.
Pete Dickson, development director of Biffa’s municipal division, said that the new vehicles will enable crews to work faster, adding “Anglesey is already one of the best recycling authorities in Wales, and Biffa wants to do all it can to help residents and council get to the 60% mark.”
Biffa’s street cleansing service has also received very high marks in the Keep Wales Tidy Report for Street Cleanliness 2014-15. The Cleanliness Indicator (CI) achieved by Anglesey was 73.1, above both the average CI of 68.7 recorded across Wales a year earlier, and the CI of 71.0 recorded for Anglesey in the corresponding survey last year.

Of the island’s 65 streets surveyed, all were grade B or above, above the current all-Wales figure (96.6%) and Anglesey’s figure from last year (98.5%). It is believed this would make Anglesey amongst the very best in Wales.