The council had been trialling an alternate weekly collection service in 6,000 of its homes with a view to taking the scheme borough-wide. But at the trials completion, Scarborough has taken the decision to go with a different system, believing a four-weekly recycling scheme would achieve a higher participation rate among residents.
Paper, cans and plastic bottles will now be collected once every four weeks using a blue bin system. The new scheme is expected to be rolled out to around 25,000 of the 52,000 households in the borough.
”We analysed public opinion and cost effectiveness and decided that we could get to more people with a four-weekly scheme“
– Sally Emerson, Scarborough council
Sally Emerson, recycling officer for the council, explained: “We analysed public opinion and cost effectiveness and decided that we could get to more people with a four-weekly scheme. We will be able to run four different collections which enables us to reach 25,000 households, the alternate weekly scheme would have only had one more roll out.”
Minimisation
In a recent Audit Commission report, Scarborough was criticised by the local government watchdog for concentrating on recycling over and above waste minimisation.
However, Ms Emerson said the council is now turning its attention waste minimisation in an attempt to cut landfill rates.
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“We are now offering our residents more capacity to recycle than ever before so the council has been discussing the possibility of introducing a smaller bin for residual waste,” she said. This would encourage residents to cut down on the waste they produce and recycle more of what they do produce.”
Scarborough was awarded two out of a possible three stars for its waste services, and had its prospects for the future judged “promising” by the Audit commission.
The council is currently recycling just over 15% of its waste and is aiming at a recycling rate of 18% for 2005/06.
Letsrecycle.com is holding a special conference on how to achieve success with alternate weekly collection systems on September 21. For more details see the letsrecycle.com events page
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