Recycling Roundup 29th January

Recycling Roundup 29^th January

Gosport Council is joining forces with paper cup manufacturer Huhtamaki to pilot a coffee cup collection and recycling service for residents and businesses, starting next month.

Recycling bins will be situated at different locations across Gosport including the ferry landing, town hall, and the leisure centre, and there are plans to put them in busy high street locations, local offices, and transport hubs in the future.

People are being asked to make sure that the cups are empty and that the lid is separated from the cup before putting them in their respective bins.

Both the cups and the lids will be recycled into other items like garden furniture and flower pots that will be used around the local area.

The Environment Minister said that the partnership between the council and industry is a great example of positive action to increase the recycling of disposable cups.

A spokesman for Huhtamaki stated that the cups they make in Gosport are made from materials that are sustainably sourced and fully recyclable. He added that the company are aware that not many of the cups are recycled, so they are hoping that the pilot scheme will help to improve overall recycling rates, and that it will set a precedent for other similar schemes around the UK.

South Gloucestershire Council has released new figures that show that their new weekly kerbside recycling collections, which began last summer, are having a positive effect.

An extra 1,279 tonnes of recycling has been collected, which amounts to a 14% increase compared with before the new collections started. The extra waste was made up of an additional 600 tonnes of paper and cardboard, 364 extra tonnes of food waste, and an extra 315 tonnes of plastics, cans, and textiles.

The weekly collections have meant that residents don’t need to store as much recyclable waste between collections, and the council has saved money on general waste disposal.

Waste that is not recyclable is taken to an energy from waste facility or it’s send to landfill, but now that more waste is being recycled, it has saved the council £130,000 in disposal and landfill costs.

The council have praised residents for their efforts, and have stated that they are determined to send less waste to landfill, which is costly, and no good for the environment.

Before they introduced the new collections, 52% of waste disposed of in black bins could have been recycled.

The next thing that the council are planning to do is to reduce the size of general waste bins. They will be reduced from 240 litres to 140 litres, so there’s less chance of recyclable waste getting put in with general waste.

As well as more frequent collections, other changes have been made, including giving larger waste bins to bigger families, and giving families with small children separate bags for soiled nappies.

Recycling figures in Colchester look set to exceed expectations, according to council bosses. The council made changes to waste collection services across the borough last year in an attempt to boost recycling rates and reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill. They reduced the frequency of general waste collections to fortnightly, and between July and November last year, 55% of waste was recycled, compared with 44% the year before. 33% less rubbish also went to landfill too compared with 2016. The council praised the hard work of staff and the residents of the borough but said that there’s still more to do.