Through contractors Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe – formerly known as Cheshire Recycling – the borough will provide the service for 44,000 households by the end of July 2004.
Residents are being provided with alternate weekly collections of green waste and general refuse and a fortnightly “Bag It and Box It” service with a box for glass and cans together with bags for recycling paper and textiles.
 Trevor Prowse (right), Hinckley's head of environmental services with councillor John Collins, portfolio holder for recycling and refuse collection |
The borough-wide roll-out follows a trial in the Markfield area last year, when
2,200 properties were provided with a multi-materials service.
Together with garden waste collections from 20,000 homes, a paper only kerbside scheme for 30,000 homes and tonnage generated by bring sites, Hinckley and Bosworth believes it achieved its 18% statutory recycling target for 2003/04. The new service should see recycling increase to its next target of 27% by 2005/06 according to the council's head of environmental services, Trevor Prowse.
“We’re extremely confident that the joint working between our own in-house contract team and Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, together with the move to multi-material kerbside collections over the coming couple of months will help us achieve our 27 percent target,” he said.
As Cheshire Recycling, Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe has been working with the council since 1989, when it first introduced paper banks to the area.
“Our 15-year partnership with Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council goes from strength to strength,” said Peter Mansfield, operations manager Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe. “We have worked hand in glove alongside the council's own in house team each step of the way – originally with paper banks only, then with the addition of a kerbside service and latterly with an extension from paper only to multi-materials, reflecting the foresight that many local authorities are showing in a bid to achieve their targets.”
Bridgewater
The new multi-materials service will again see paper going to Abitibi-Consolidated's Bridgewater mill for recycling into premium grade newsprint, while other materials will be retained by Leicestershire county council for sale to other reprocessors.
Existing paper-only collections have been generating about 1,700 tonnes of material each year, while the multi-material trial generated about 100 tonnes of material. The new expansion should see an additional 2,400 tonnes of material recycled from the borough's household waste.
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