The new centre has a capacity of 7,000 tonnes a year to sort recyclables, including 1,000 tonnes of packaging materials, such as cans and plastics, from the council and commercial sources. Some of the material will come from the district council's blue bin kerbside collections and the centre will be operated by SITA UK.
Councillor Norman Bolster, Cherwell district council's executive member for the environment, said of the paper, cans and plastics sent to the sorting centre: “Through our partnership with SITA, this can be sorted locally and distributed to newspaper mills and manufacturers who are making excellent use of it in a variety of markets.”
Paul Dumpleton, SITA UK's recycling manager said that the investment of funds raised by PRN compliance schemes, into recycling facilities is an essential part of meeting European legislation on packaging waste. “This is a classic example of a successful partnership approach aimed at meeting European Legislation on Packaging through the PRN system,” he said.
He added: “SITA UK and Valpak, the UK's largest compliance scheme, have worked closely together for a number of years to develop recycling projects funded through the PRN system. The Cherwell project is a good example of packaging waste that would normally go to landfill being diverted with the help of finance generated through charges made by a compliance scheme to its members.”
Through its kerbside collections of green waste and dry recyclables and with of the support of the new recycling centre, the council is hoping to increase its recycling rate from 11% last year to 30%.
The collections are run on an alternate week basis with the residual waste collection and residents have the option to request extra containers for green and recyclable waste. They currently cover 34,000 out of the total 55,000 properties in the district.
Councillor Bolster said: “Some 14,000 people have asked Cherwell for extra blue recycling boxes or bins since the launch of our fortnightly scheme.”
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