When Cherwell started the scheme, it was recycling under 11% of its waste and was the 274th best recycling authority in England.
 Cherwell district council celebrates composting 25,000 tonnes of green waste through alternate weekly scheme |
Two years on and the council claims that it is now recycling 43% of its waste, which could put it in the top 20 local authorities in the country.
The government has released the UK's 2004/05 national recycling rate, 23%, but official local authority figures are not expected to be available until January 2006.
Cherwell has two bins for recycling on the scheme, a blue bin for recyclables and a brown bin for garden waste. The blue bin can take plastic bottles, paper, card and cans. A green bin is collected on intervening weeks for refuse.
The council has this week also announced that over 25,000 tonnes of garden waste has now been sent to local farms for composting through the scheme.
Success
Councillor Kieran Mallon, the environment portfolio holder, said: “Introducing a new service for people to collect their garden waste for recycling has been a big part of the success of the scheme.
“Without the new service a lot of those 25,000 tonnes of garden waste would have been mixed with ordinary rubbish and dumped. That would have taken up a lot of landfill space, instead of being put to good use on local farms,” he added.
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As well as the 25,000 tonnes of garden waste that has been recycled, the council has also achieved other major landmarks in the two years of the scheme. More than 40,000 extra blue recycling bins or boxes have been ordered by residents and more than 20,000 tonnes of paper; cans and plastic have been sent for recycling.
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