Kerbside collection

It is usually accomplished by personnel using specially built vehicles to pick up household waste in containers that are acceptable to, or prescribed by, the municipality and are placed on the kerb.

Household waste was often simply thrown out of an open window, buried in the garden or deposited in outhouses (see more at urban archaeology).

A small industry developed as "swill children" collected kitchen refuse to sell for pig feed and the rag and bone man traded goods for bones (used for glue) and rags (essential for paper manufacture prior to the invention of wood pulping).

As sanitation engineering came to be practised beginning in the mid-19th century and human waste was conveyed from the home in pipes, the gong farmer was replaced by the municipal rubbish collector as there remained growing amounts of household refuse, including fly ash from coal, which was burnt for home heating.

In Paris, the rag and bone man worked side by side with the municipal bin man, though reluctantly: in 1884, Eugène Poubelle introduced the first integrated kerbside collection and recycling system, requiring residents to separate their waste into perishable items, paper and cloth, and crockery and shells.

He also established rules for how private collectors and city workers should cooperate and he developed standard dimensions for refuse containers: his name in France is now synonymous with the garbage can.

Under Poubelle, food waste and other organics collected in Paris were transported to nearby Saint Ouen where they were composted.

Kerbside collection is considered a low-risk strategy to reduce waste volumes and increase the recycling rates.

Kerbside collection and household recycling schemes are also being used as tools by many local authorities to increase the public's awareness of their waste production.

Source separation used to be the preferred method due to the high cost of sorting commingled (mixed waste) collection.

However, advances in sorting technology have substantially lowered this overhead, and many areas that had developed source separation programs have switched to what is called co-mingled collection.

[6] Residential kerbside collection is carried out by local governments, with some exceptions, e.g. some large apartment complexes may have their own separate arrangements with commercial providers.

The green waste bin can be used for garden organics (e.g. small branches, leaves, grass clippings), and councils are increasingly allowing food scraps, used paper towels and tissues and other biodegradable organics to be placed in the green waste bin.

There may be different kinds of collection, e.g.: For bulky waste, residents are asked to place items directly on the kerbside.

Due to the success of the project the City of Kitchener put out a contract for public bid in 1984 for a recycling system citywide.

[10] In New Zealand, kerbside collection of general refuse and recycling, and in some areas organic waste, is the responsibility of the local city or district council, or private contractors.

Some examples of collection are: By 1996 the New Zealand cities of Auckland, Waitakere, North Shore and Lower Hutt had kerbside recycling bins available.

In New Plymouth, Wanganui and Upper Hutt recyclable material was collected if placed in suitable bags.

Bury uses blue for cans, plastic and glass, green for paper and cardboard and brown for garden waste.

Salford uses blue for paper and card, brown for cans, plastic and glass, and pink for garden waste.

This has caused problems from larger households, and has led to an increase of overflowing bins and fly tipping.

For example, previously, Bury Council collected general waste once a week and recyclables fortnightly.

These prevent food waste (including meat and fish) from going to landfill or incineration, and to increase the council's recycling rate.

This means that a single-stream recycling system is used, so plastics, cans and glass go into the same bin as paper and cardboard.

Councils that use many bags and boxes (Edinburgh) suffer from less contamination but are complicated and the loose paper and cardboard, and plastic recycling bags are blown around by the wind, and paper can become wet due to rain or snow, or contaminated with food residue, dirt, oil or grease.

In the province of Gipuzkoa, this system is implanted in many towns as Usurbil, Hernani, Oiartzun, Antzuola, Legorreta, Itsasondo, Zaldibia, Anoeta, Alegia, Irura, Zizurkil, Astigarraga, Ordizia, Oñati and Lezo, where the common used name in Basque is "atez-atekoa", which means door-by-door.

Kerbside collection in Canberra , Australia.
Discarded Christmas trees awaiting collection in the San Fernando Valley
Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Nova Scotia , Canada, with a population of about 375,000, has one of the most complex kerbside collection programmes in North America . Based on the green cart , it requires residents to self-sort refuse and place different types at the kerb on alternating weeks. As shown in the photo at left, week 1 would see the green cart and optional orange bags used for kitchen waste and other organics such as yard waste. Week 2 would permit non-recoverable waste in garbage bags or cans. Blue bags are used for paper, plastic and metal containers. Together with used grocery bags containing newspapers, they may be placed on the kerb either week. In summer, the green cart is emptied weekly due to the prevalence of flies. HRM has achieved a diversion rate of approximately 60 percent by this method.
Kerbside collection bins in Dunedin , New Zealand . The yellow-liddied wheelie bin is for non-glass recyclables, and the blue bin is for glass. The two bins are collected on alternating weeks. Official council bags are used for general household waste, and are collected weekly.