But Ashfield council, in Nottinghamshire, will collect only paper, card and cardboard from the district’s 48,000 households, and with only fortnightly collections.
The Audit Commission said in a report last year: “Recycling rates are very low – the recycling rate is in the bottom 25% of English authorities.” The 2.4% rate found by commission inspectors had changed little over the preceding five years, it added, despite the council having set itself a target to recycle 25% household waste by 2000.
“The council did not give a high priority to recycling, but that has changed,” said transport and refuse manager Paul Talbot, who took over the service in October 2002. We will hit 8% recycling this year, and I’m confident we will get to our statutory target of 10% in 2003-04.”
The council used a 140,000 grant from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to improve the service. This included employing consultant Edd de Coverly, from South Herts Waste Management, to advise on marketing and education, which had both been identified as particularly weak.
Ashfield plans to run a fuller fortnightly recycling service on a pilot basis across one-eighth of the district this summer. This will include plastics and cans, but will omit glass due to contamination problems, Mr Talbot said. Normal refuse collection will take place on the alternate weeks.
The transport and refuse manager said the council’s ability to hit its eventual statutory target of 25% recycling by 2005 would depend partly on whether Nottinghamshire county council completed a new materials reclamation facility that year as planned.
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