Waste and refuse strategies as unit numbers rise

Refuse is the requirement most likely to force a layout change late in a scheme, and it is assessed by a body that is not the planning department. The waste collection authority looks at three things: whether residents can reach the store, whether the crew can reach it with a wheeled container, and whether the vehicle can get within reach of the collection point and turn round. Fail any of those and the answer is a redesign, not a condition.

At one to five houses the question barely exists. At twelve flats it governs the position of the bin store, the door widths and the surface of the drag route. Past fifty units it shapes the access road geometry. Design it in at the same time as the parking, not after.

What the collection authority assesses

The authority collecting household waste does so under Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and it has a practical interest in not accepting an arrangement its crews cannot service. Most publish a developer guidance note, and that document is the standard your scheme is judged against, not any national figure.

They assess:

• The distance a resident carries a bag or wheels a container from the dwelling to the store.
• The distance and gradient over which the crew pulls a loaded container from the store to the vehicle.
• The surface, kerbs, steps and door widths along that route.
• The capacity of the store against the number of dwellings and the collection frequency.
• Whether the vehicle can reach the collection point, and whether it can turn without reversing more than a short distance.
• Ventilation, drainage, wash-down provision and vermin-proofing inside the store.

BS 5906, the code of practice for waste management in buildings, is the technical reference behind most of those requirements, and Approved Document H6 of the Building Regulations deals with solid waste storage. Read the local guidance first, though, because the numbers in it are the ones that will be applied.

Carry and drag distances

Two distances do most of the work, and they are measured along the actual walking route rather than as a straight line on the plan.

The occupier carry distance runs from the dwelling entrance to the store. Published guidance commonly caps it around 30 m for a communal store, with shorter distances where the route involves steps or a change of level. Some authorities measure from the furthest dwelling, some from the block entrance, and the difference matters on a deep plan.

The crew drag distance runs from the store to the point where the vehicle stands. Published limits are shorter and depend on container size, since pulling a 1100 litre bin is a different proposition from a 240 litre wheelie. Figures in the range of 10 m to 25 m appear in developer guidance depending on the container, and gradients are usually capped at around 1 in 12 with no steps permitted at all.

Three design consequences follow:

1. Stores end up near the site entrance rather than near the dwellings, which is the opposite of what residents want. Resolve that tension explicitly rather than pretending it does not exist.
2. A store reached by a route with a single step is a store that will not be serviced. Check the levels on the section, not on the plan.
3. Where the drag route crosses a parking court, show it on the drawing as a protected route with a bound surface, because a route across gravel or grass will be refused.

Capacity as unit numbers rise

The calculation is arithmetic once you have the local figures. Multiply the number of dwellings by the volume per dwelling per week for each stream, which the authority publishes by bedroom count, multiply by the collection interval in weeks, divide by container capacity, then round up and add a contingency for a missed collection.

What changes with scale is the form of provision rather than the method.

Above around 50 units the highway geometry becomes the constraint rather than the store, and the internal road has to be designed for the collection vehicle from the outset, as our note on going from a single access to an internal road network sets out.

Do not assume a standard vehicle. Ask the authority for the dimensions, the kerb to kerb turning circle and the maximum reversing distance it will accept, then use those in the tracking drawing.

Communal against individual provision

Individual bins give residents ownership and avoid the contamination problem that ruins communal recycling. They also need somewhere to live that is not the front garden, and a terrace with no rear access will end up with bins on the street whatever the drawing says.

Communal stores use less land per dwelling and present better on the street, but they need active management: a caretaker or managing agent, a cleaning regime, and a mechanism for dealing with contamination. Where there is no management company, avoid them.

For flats, the question is usually settled by the collection authority's own preference, so ask at pre-application stage rather than designing twice. Provision by dwelling size interacts with the housing mix, and our note on housing mix and space standards covers how that changes as schemes grow.

Recycling streams and bulky waste

The number of streams has grown, and a store sized for two containers is now undersized. Plan for:

• Residual waste.
• Dry recycling, whether comingled or separated into paper and card, plastics and metal, and glass.
• Food waste, collected weekly from households under the Simpler Recycling reforms in England.
• Garden waste where the authority offers a subscription service, which still needs storage space.
• Textiles, where separate collection applies.
• Bulky items, which need a temporary holding area on any scheme with communal stores, because without one the mattress sits next to the bins for a month.

Food waste is the stream most often omitted from planning drawings and the one with the most awkward requirements: frequent collection, internal caddies and a separate lockable container that cannot be left in direct sun.

Servicing a constrained town centre site

On an infill site with no off-street servicing, the arrangement has to be agreed rather than designed in isolation. The options, in rough order of acceptability:

1. A store at the back of the footway with a short drag distance to an existing loading bay.
2. A timed collection from the carriageway, agreed with the highway authority and the collection authority together.
3. A holding area at street level into which the management company moves containers on collection morning, with a smaller store elsewhere in the building.
4. A dedicated service bay, which uses frontage and will be resisted on a narrow street.

Whichever applies, the agreement needs both authorities. A highway authority that will allow a loading bay and a collection authority that will not service from it leaves you with a permission you cannot implement.

Evidence and drawings to submit

A refuse strategy that gets approved contains a drawing and a short document, and the drawing does most of the work.

The drawing should show store locations and internal layout at 1:50, container types and quantities, the carry route from the furthest dwelling annotated with its length, the drag route annotated with length and gradient, the collection point, door and gate opening widths, and the vehicle swept path where a vehicle enters the site.

The document should set out the capacity calculation with its inputs, the collection frequency assumed, the management arrangements, the contamination strategy and the bulky waste provision. On larger schemes that sits inside a Waste Management Strategy, and on anything where servicing and refuse interact it should be cross-referenced to the Transport Assessment so the two do not contradict each other.

One habit that saves a revision: send the draft drawing to the waste officer by email before the application goes in, and quote their reply in the document. Officers accept an arrangement they have already seen.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Refuse standards are set by your collection authority, so check its published developer guidance before fixing a layout.

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