New recycling service off to a great start

Stratford-on-Avon District Council's new enhanced recycling service has got off to a great start thanks to residents' help.

In the first 6 weeks of the new service, the District Council has already collected: 

• Over 0.8 tonnes of textiles
• Enough small electrical and electronic items to fill 60 standard wheeled bins
• Enough household batteries to fill more than 2 standard wheeled bins  

The expansion of the District Council's recycling service means that the following items can now be recycled on the doorstep:

• Small household Electrical and Electronic Equipment (also known as 'WEEE')
• Textiles such as old clothes and rags (excluding pillows, duvets and footwear) and
• Household batteries (excluding car batteries)

The combined recycling and composting rate for Stratford district for 2012/13 is expected to exceed 60% for the first time. The projected rate of 60.3% for the district, which has yet to be confirmed, is an increase of 2.9% from the previous year.

More positively still is the decrease in the amount of domestic waste produced. In 2011/12, 406kg was created by an average sized household. Last year this fell to 386g, equating to a 5% reduction.

Remarkably there is still room for improvement. Provisional results from a recent Compositional Analysis exercise show that 57% of waste that residents put into their grey rubbish bin could be recycled or composted. Over two third of this is food waste which could go in the green bin for composting.

Cllr Lynda Organ, Technical Services Portfolio says: “These are terrific results and show just how much residents of the district support the District Council's refuse and recycling service.  When it was first introduced we tried to make it as easy as possible and we will continue to do so. 

When the service was last reviewed, residents told us that a weekly collection of food waste was important to them. The current service offers this as it can go in the grey bin one week and the green bin the next.  However, results show that some residents are still leaving their food waste for a fortnightly collection by only putting it in their grey bin. We would encourage these residents to put it all in their green bin instead so it can be composted not sent to landfill. 

Just think if all this other waste was diverted into recycling or composting our recycling rate would shoot through the roof to 80% and 11,250 tonnes of waste, which is the equivalent of 1607 elephants or 56 Jumbo Jets, could be diverted from landfill each year, how fantastic would that be!" 

Residents can place their unwanted electrical items, textiles and batteries in separate tied up carrier bags on the ground by the side of any of their wheeled bins, not inside the bin, for collection on the normal collection day.

To ensure they can be collected, items must be small enough to fit into a standard-sized carrier bag, such as a plastic shopping bags.

Small household WEEE includes:

• Kettles, toasters, irons and other small kitchen appliances
• Hairdryers, hair straighteners and hair clippers
• Clocks, watches, calculators and torches
• Remote controllers, mobile phones, cameras and chargers
• Mobile phone and laptop batteries
• Radios, alarms, mini hi-fi's and CD and MP3 players
• Power tools, smoke detectors and thermostats
• Small electronic toys eg remote control cars
• Household batteries (placed in a separate bag)
• Any other small electrical item with a plug or that uses batteries

Small household WEEE excludes:

• Light bulbs, fluorescent tubes,
• Televisions, computer monitors of any size and laptops
• Large white good (e.g. washing machines, fridges and microwave ovens)
• Anything that will not fit inside a standard-sized carrier bag

Cables and plugs should be left attached to the electrical items, but batteries should be removed from the electrical items and bagged separately.  Bagged batteries can be put into the carrier bag along with small electrical items.

The contract extension with Biffa has resulted in budget savings of approx £400,000 each year for the next 9 years and ensures continuity of service.