The appointment of Jack Lindsey to the recycling post from his former job as contracts co-ordinator, has seen the start of a new plastics recycling campaign. Mr Lindsey has the job of turning recycling in the county around as last year, the county only recycled 11.8% but has to hit 20% to meet government and Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets.
Mr Lindsey said: “My job is to kick-start recycling. Before, recycling in the county was a bit ad hoc. ” Mr Lindsey has already organised a seminar for both contractors and recyclers to encourage them to work together to find the best ways of doing things and later this month he is organising a meeting for district recycling officers. “We need to work together, our goal is the same. By doing this, I think we can have some of the best recycling sites in the country,” he said.
Plastics recycling has been made possible by the purchase of a new multi-chamber baler, manufactured by Orwak, which Warwickshire is making available for all its contractors and district councils to use. And the 14,000 baler has proved so popular that the authority is considering investing in another one. Mr Lindsey explained how the council had tried plastic bottle recycling in the past but found it too expensive. He said that before he could only fit two tonnes of plastic in a 40ft articulated lorry but explained that if you bale the material you can get 16-20 tonnes in the same size lorry. The baler can also be used for cardboard, timber and cans.
The council introduced plastics recycling at three of its recycling and household waste sites at Kenilworth, Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon on February 1. Each site has two containers for plastic bottles – one for HDPE and the other for PET.
Mr Lindsey said that the plastics recycling scheme is going really well. “Plastic is already going great guns and as you can imagine, the public have welcomed it with open arms as they have been screaming for it for many years. Up until now, it has not been economical to transport such a lightweight material over long distances. However, the recent acquisition of a high density baler and the agreement with Delleve Plastics, means that the recycling of plastics is now a sustainable option for waste sites in the south of the county.”
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