New fleet to collect even more recycling & waste



Issued by City of York Council

City of York Council has invested in new waste and recycling vehicles that will increase productivity by five per cent – meaning the council will have the capacity to make another 750 collections per week, reduce the amount of fuel used by 20 per cent and result in even more waste being diverted from landfill.

The current fleet has been in service for five years (which is the average lifespan for waste and recycling vehicles) and has made a total of 35 million collections during that time.

The council is committed to remaining one of top performing waste and recycling authorities in the UK, by continuing to collect 99.98 per cent of all commercial and residential recycling and waste collections right first time.

In order to continue this level of service, as the current fleet’s become costly to repair and inefficient on fuel, the council has recently procured new vehicles for its fleet through ongoing revenue funding.

The waste vehicles are larger, 32 tonnes gross weight instead of 26 tonnes, and can hold a much greater volume of waste 16 tonnes instead of 10. They have the ‘cleanest’ large diesel engines on the market – to the latest European Standard – meaning reduced emissions, and are fitted with electric bin lift systems which require no fuel to run, saving 20 per cent on fuel costs, and are much quieter when in use

The recycling vehicles are also larger in capacity, holding eight tonnes of recyclable materials instead of 2.5 tonnes, and designed so that crews can load materials easier and faster. Instead having to stop and wait for materials to be lifted up and tipped into the vehicle, they can be continuously loaded into the rear.

The vehicles are also equipped with new equipment designed to track all waste vehicles and provide information on vehicle efficiency (i.e. fuel use) to ensure the council can maximise the use of its service and realise necessary savings.

Cllr David Levene, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said: “The new vehicles are designed so that we can now access the one per cent of households in remote parts of York – meaning an additional 750 collections could be made per week. Crews will also be able to see first hand if properties require special action such as assisted collection and they can receive direct information from the York Customer Centre in real time, on issues such as damaged bins and non presented bins. Instant messaging is also a part of the system and will, as it is rolled out across the fleet, replace reliance on mobile phones.”

The council is also following the lead of a number of other authorities, including Bath & NE Somerset, Bolton, Perth & Kinross, by introducing CCTV cameras in its fleet. This will provide a live feed to enable officers to monitor vehicles and increase supervision (currently there are three supervisors managing 40 vehicles). This will also be linked to the tracking system so that, if necessary, footage can be used as evidence to support residents’ reports of damaged bins or for insurance claims.

The cost of the new technology will be spread through the vehicles five to seven year life span – meaning there is no upfront cost. This technology will help contribute £10,000 in 2013/14 –towards the waste services review.

All vehicles front line refuse and recycling fleet will be fitted with the new technology over the course of the vehicle replacement programme throughout the next financial year 2013/14.

The efficiency of the new vehicles will be greatly improved and contribute to the savings target for the service of £300,000 in 2013/14.



This content has not been created by YorkMix but by one of our trusted news sources. YorkMix is not responsible for the accuracy of the text.