Recycling Roundup 22nd April

Recycling Roundup 22^nd April

Five recycling centres in Surrey will not be able to accept waste wood from June when new charges are introduced, due to a lack of payment points.

The council agreed on introducing a charge of £30 for a car load of construction wood from the beginning of June, and a smaller charge of £4 will be levied on people who take single items of wood or small bags.

Now there are fears that the lack of payment facilities will lead to increased fly-tipping and some councillors have called for the immediate introduction of payment facilities. According to them, the lack of payment facilities was not discussed during the consultation on the introduction of the charges.

A council spokesperson said that wood would still be accepted at other recycling centres in Surrey, and that this was communicated to residents.

Charges are set to be levied on fence panels, sheds, doors, floor boards and joists, laminate flooring, decking, built-in furniture such as wardrobes and kitchen cupboards, and worktops.

A mountain of unwanted brown bins has appeared at a recycling centre after thousands of residents in Midlothian refused to sign up for a paid garden waste collection service.

The council introduced the charge last month, and as a result, rows of unwanted bins have been taken to a recycling centre in Newtongrange.

The charge was introduced to keep the service going after a cut in funding from the Scottish Government. At the time of the decision, Midlothian Council said it had to introduce the charge or the service might have had to be cut altogether.

More than 15,000 households have signed up for the service, and others have kept their brown bin and organised their own garden waste disposal. Around 3500 households have returned their bins, hence the pile up at the recycling centre.

Any unwanted bins are being dismantled. The metal wheel spindles are being recycled at a council recycling facility, and the bins are being recycled by a company that pays the council for the bins.

Residents who have subscribed to the service have been sent a sticker for their bins so the refuse teams know who has paid for the service. The size of general waste bins has been reduced to stop people from putting their garden waste in them.

Changes are coming to waste and recycling services in Pembrokeshire. Residents will asked to show that there are no recyclable items in their household general waste bin bags, a free hygiene products collection service is being introduced, and more changes are being introduced to kerbside collections from October.

The aim of the measures is to increase recycling, as the council faces large fines if it don’t meet the government’s recycling targets. A local councillor said the fines would take money away from essential services and has called on residents to do their bit and recycle responsibly.

Pembrokeshire currently recycles 60% of its waste but it needs to increase that to 64% by next year and 70% by 2024-2025. If it misses the target, it will face a hefty £140,000 fine for everyone one percent the target is missed by.