Manchester “good” for waste services, let down by recycling

In a report by the Commission published this week, the council's waste management service was graded as a “good” two star service, with “promising” prospects for the future.

Inspectors said the service had a number of strengths including its use of new technologies in collecting household waste.

Commenting on the report, Manchester city council spokesperson Helena Davison said: “We are in the early stages of fitting vehicle trackers to all of our recycling vehicles. This enables the vehicle to be pinpointed at any moment in time – very useful for seeing where a vehicle is up to on a round if necessary.

“Eventually what we hope to be able to do is link the vehicle tracking to a system in the vehicle cab to direct the driver where to go. The same info will be able to be fed back to EOC so they can inform the public where a vehicle is and to predict how long it will take before it gets to their house,” she added.

Manchester was hailed by the Commission for its “broad” recycling service for residents, with residents expressing satisfaction with the quality of waste collections and cleanliness in the city.

Attention
Inspectors said there were still some matters which required attention, with the report pointing out that “recycling levels, although improved, are comparatively low and waste quantities collected, although reduced, continue to be high.”

The Commission also claimed that the city could offer a much better range of recycling for materials such as plastics. Manchester city council told letsrecycle.com it had looked at the option of collecting plastic, but the low weight yield was a deterrent. Instead, the authority is rolling out a new green waste collection service.

Ms Davison explained: “We have looked into collecting plastic but at the moment landfill charges are worked out by weight and plastic isn't as good for weight as green waste.

Manchester has been rolling out its new green waste collection this week to 15,000 homes in South Manchester, an area of households that mostly have gardens. The first collections will take place on Monday, and then up until September a further three phases will be rolled out across the city.

The garden waste scheme will compliment Manchester's current “Kerbit” collection scheme. Under the scheme the city collects paper, glass and cans once a month. Where households are big enough Manchester uses a blue bin for the collection of paper, a brown bin for glass and a sack for cans. For terraced areas and flats a black box is provided and the recyclables are collected together and separated by the council.

The city is also running free reusable cotton nappy trials for its residents, with parents able to have nappies laundered and delivered directly to the door for a full month with no charge.