Congleton recycling struggles to cope with demand

Hundreds of householders in the Cheshire borough are said to have complained because their containers were not emptied by the council's contractor, Greencycle, on the allocated day.

The council claimed this was because the number of residents participating in the scheme and the volume of material put out for collection exceeded all expectations, and its staff and vehicles could not meet demand. Congleton also said that the number of vehicles to be used will double, although the contractor has since disputed this level of increase.

“Substantial improvements” are expected this week, but the council has said it could be the end of the month before collections are fully back on track.

Vehicles

Measures in place to address the backlog of uncollected material do include increasing the number of vehicles picking up material. Congleton has said the number of trucks will increase from 10 to 20 to cope with demand.

But this has been challenged by Greencycle, which said it has seven permanent vehicles on the road and has only temporarily deployed another three to deal with the post-Christmas influx.

Enfield-based Greencycle rolled out the new fortnightly collection arrangement arrangements on December 3. Residents now have a blue box for tins, cans and glass; a red box for mixed plastics; a green sack for paper, cardboard and cartons.

This adds a number of items including cardboard and plastic to the previous scheme operated by Abitibi-Consolidated which provided collections of newspaper, cans and glass segregated by colour.

It was predicted the new scheme would increase participation rates among residents by around a quarter but the council reports that 70% of residents are now using the service, compared with 37% before its introduction. The council noted that 650 tonnes of material was collected in December 2007 compared with 350 tonnes in December 2006.

And, on the first day of the scheme, Greencycle crews picked up around 45 tonnes of material compared with the usual Monday tally of 19 tonnes.

Executive member for waste and recycling Cllr Chris Nield said the amount of material collected was “astronomical” and added: “We have become victims of our own success. The challenges we now face are all to do with the volume of recyclable material presented at the kerbside.”

Complaints

However, local newspapers in Cheshire have report how furious residents have been waiting days and weeks for recyclables to be collected, and in the meantime, plastic bottles and paper were blowing over streets and roads.

Congleton issued an apology to residents at a press conference in the borough last week and Head of Safer Communities, Steve Jones, put the issues down to teething problems with the new scheme.

He said: “We have every confidence in Greencycle, they are working very closely with us to respond to the problems and have been very proactive with their ideas.

“Congleton borough residents are top recyclers and when we get this scheme right we will have one of the most comprehensive and cost effective service in the county if not the country.”

Greencycle managing director Neil Rippon said the company was working to make sure containers were emptied on the allocated day. However, due to high material volumes, he said some were being collected the following day instead – although some householders were again missed because they had taken the boxes inside.

He added others were waiting for four weeks for containers to be emptied because of the way the bank holidays had fallen and the council had not rearranged the service for an alternative day.

Contract

Greencycle has been awarded a two year contract for collection services and by the end of this period, Congleton wants to hit a 45% recycling rate, although this will include material from Household Waste Recycling Centres and the council's green waste collection service. The overall recycling/composting rate for 2006/07 was 36%.

Recyclables are sorted by Greencycle operatives at kerbside and the scheme includes a collection of mixed plastics – bottles, yoghurt pots, margarine tubs and plastic carrier bags – a waste stream many local authorities are reluctant to tackle because it is said to lower the quality of material.

Mr Rippon said: “You might get a lower price for mixed paper than you would for newspapers but if you mix you might get three times the volume. Our job is to make sure the least amount is landfilled.