The county's recycling sites are being re-branded as 'household waste recycling centres' to emphasise that they are for household waste only, as well as changes to signposting, containers and the types of materials being taken.
Wyvern Waste Services, who have recently been awarded a five-year contract to run the sites, are hoping the changes will allow them to reach Bedfordshire's targets of 12% recycling by 2003-04 and 18% by 2005-06.
Andrew Olie, Managing Director of Wyvern, said: “The public has responded well to the changes on site we have already made. More changes will be introduced shortly and we will be expanding the number of different types of material segregated on site to increase the levels of recycling further.”
Over 200,000 tonnes of household waste is produced in Bedfordshire each year, and the new style containers will take glass, paper, cardboard, textiles, plastics, metals, wood and green waste. However, there will be a limit placed on the amount of construction or building waste that householders can dispose of at the sites at any one time. Reputable traders and charities will be able to develop agreements with the sites to take materials for repair, reuse or recycling.
Richard Payne, the Bedfordshire councillor responsible for environmental issues said: “In 2001-02 over 19% of the materials taken to the sites was recycled or reused – the rest had to go to landfill because it had not been sorted properly or could not be recycled. In order to reach the new contract targets this recycling level will need to reach 25% by April 2003 and 35% by April 2004. Reaching these targets will help enormously towards us meeting our overall recycling rate for the county.”
Wyvern Waste Services, which started out as a Local Authority Waste Disposal Company formed from the Operational Waste Management department of Somerset County Council in 1992, will see bonuses going to staff employed at the sites related to the amount of materials that are recycled through the site.
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