Bridgend one of “the cleanest and greenest boroughs”
June 30, 2011 No Comments
As the borough’s new weekly recycling collection scheme marks its first anniversary, latest figures show more than half of our household waste is now being recycled.
The Labour run Bridgend County Borough Council introduced the new initiative with partners May Gurney in June 2010, introducing recycling collections every week to every home and switching to a fortnightly collection for landfill waste.
Since the scheme was brought in, the borough has moved from being the second worst Welsh local authority for recycling to the top five, and is officially the most improved area in Wales.
The performance is credited to the way residents have embraced the weekly recycling and the wide range of materials which can now be recycled at the kerbside, including food, plastics, cardboard and tins.
It’s also led to a huge drop in the amount of waste being thrown away in black bags, meaning the borough is also one of the top performing places for landfill diversion.
Figures also reveal:
- In April 2011 residents recycled 3298 tonnes – the equivalent of 717 adult elephants!
- The average household now recycles12kg of waste each month – 50 per cent more than this time last year.
- ‘Best’ and ‘worst’ performing areas vary across the borough and throughout the year. Currently it’s householders with a Thursday collection which are recycling the most.
- Blue bag recycling (plastics, tins, cans and foil) is put out in the greatest quantities by borough households. Residents are being advised they could make more space in their blue bag by squeezing the air out of bottles.
- Putting recycling in the wrong containers and wrapping food waste in carrier bags is still one of the most common reasons for recycling to be ‘rejected’ by collection crews. Only compostable bags, such as those supplied by BCBC, or newspaper should be used to wrap scraps.
Council Leader, Councillor Mel Nott, said: “One year on, we can see that the changes to recycling and waste collections has produced brilliant results. We’re now one of the cleanest and greenest boroughs in Wales in terms of our recycling performance and our landfill diversion.
“It took some getting used to and many people expressed their concerns about whether the scheme would work and what problems it might cause. We certainly had some teething problems at the start but then introducing something of this scale, and which affects every single home in the borough was always going to be a challenge.
“I’m pleased to say that our residents really came through. They are recycling more waste more often and the feedback suggests that they have got used to the new system very quickly.
“I have certainly noticed that there are far fewer black bags being left out for collection. However there’s still some way to go and we need the minority of households who are not recycling to start joining in. I think the idea of weekly recycling and fortnightly waste collections sounds more daunting than it is. For my household, separating recycling has become a way of life and I can’t imagine doing it in any other way now.
“I just want to say a huge thank you and well done to the residents who have made this a success and ask them to encourage their neighbours to do the same.”
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