City struggles to cope with post-flood recycling

The city council said it has been “overwhelmed by the public-spirited response of residents” and has asked them to keep bottles at home for as long as possible. It is hoped this will create a more staggered response to returning bottles.

Members of the public have also been asked to crush bottles so more can be squeezed into the container. Additional banks have also been provided across the city.

Figures are not available for how many tonnes of plastic have been collected but the council's specialist collection vehicle is undertaking extra journeys and is still inundated.

Across the county 340,000 people have been left without water at some point and millions of bottles of drinking water have been handed out.

Gloucestershire

In other parts of Gloucestershire – namely Stroud, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury – collection firm Recresco has provided an extra 40 banks to cope with the demand (see letsrecycle.com story).

Before the floods hit, Recresco did not have any banks in this part of the county and director Eric Gent said: “We are proud of our response time and that we were able to get containers delivered within 48 hours to an area where previously we had none.

“Staff got into the spirit and were out delivering banks until 11 at night and then back again in the morning. And members of the public really want to recycle. It's a good sign that even in a crisis so many tonnes were saved from landfill,” he added.

Recresco is servicing the banks daily and under normal circumstances, the most frequent collections required are three times a week.

Its banks and vehicles which have been redeployed from other parts of the country are expected to remain in Gloucestershire for a month.

Between four and eight tonnes of plastic are being collected each day and this is baled locally before being sent to plastic reprocesser J & A Young in Leicestershire.

• The Environment Agency has issued advice to victims on how to deal with the aftermath of the flood and has published a series of short guides on its website.

It is working with The Health Protection Agency to make sure potential health risks are identified. It also expects that usual collection services for household bins will be affected.

Chief exeutive Barabara Young said: “We expect to see a significant increase in the amount of waste needing to be disposed of as a result of severe flooding. There is also likely to be disruption to normal waste collection and disposal arrangements.”