How to … Collect and recycle rubbish

The government's recent suggestion of a £1 charge for each bag of rubbish has provoked intense debate. It has focused attention on England's low recycling rate, which is amongst the lowest in Europe and less than even in the US. Only an average 11% of household waste is recycled or composted in England at the moment, compared with nearly 50% in Austria, Holland, Germany and Switzerland and 34% in Sweden. The government wants average rates in England of 17% by 2003-04 and 25% two years later.

A survey by the Environment Agency earlier this year found nine out of ten people said they would recycle more waste if it were made easier.

Approximately 25 million tonnes of household waste is produced in England and Wales each year. The storage and collection of this waste is one of the unglamorous but essential sides of housing design. Our streets and housing estates are littered with rubbish collection facilities: wheelie-bins, paladins, recycling bins, refuse stores, black sacks and so on. Even when discrete bin stores have been designed, a change in collection procedures and the increase in the volume of household refuse has usually resulted in the omnipresent wheelie-bin on the front step or overflowing paladin bins strewn around estates together with lots of green boxes.

Most housing managers and caretaking staff will tell you that the satisfactory collection of refuse is one of their main concerns and a source of complaint from residents assessing the quality of their neighbourhood.

Does it have to be like this?
Can we design excellent new homes and help local authorities meet the government's recycling targets while ensuring neighbourhoods are sustainable?

PRP has recently been visiting high-density housing schemes in other northern European countries. During our visits we have been struck with the innovative and, dare I say, exciting methods of collecting and recycling household refuse. Innovative and exciting to us, perhaps, but the European housing associations looked rather bemused at our determination to examine these elements of their schemes which they consider to be normal.

In Sweden we were intrigued by a spotless paladin room with a compartmentalised bin which rotates to fill each compartment and, when it is full, compacts the refuse. No need for overflowing paladins there – every scheme has recycling rooms with bins for glass, papers, batteries and bulk refuse.

In England it seems the layout of our housing estates is determined by how far the refuse collection service will pull a paladin bin and the turning circle of a refuse cart. It need not necessarily be so. On one scheme being built in Stockholm, each block of flats has separate underground bins for compostable waste, paper packaging, plastics and metals. These feed into a central collection system for the whole development, removing any need for refuse lorries to come into the centre of the estate. These features were designed in from the start as part of the infrastructure; in Sweden this is expected.

Innovation is the key
Some English local authorities are already exploring innovative collection methods including German 'Iceberg' bins (neat pillarbox-sized receptacles above ground and invisible below ground tanks) which are being installed in the Ecopark scheme in Thamesmead, east London, and are similar to ones successfully used in Newham.

Architects must work with housing managers and local authorities to change our attitude to refuse disposal and to design for it effectively. I am certain it is worth it if new homes are to be sustainable and attractive – and I would personally be delighted never to see an overflowing wheelie-bin again.