But, materials will be collected commingled and sent for sorting in a materials recycling facility (MRF) rather than separated at the kerbside, as had previously been the case.
The announcement today (July 7) comes a week after recycling collections for the 32,000 households in Torridge were suspended after contractor South Molton Recycle (SMR) suddenly went into administration (see letsrecycle.com story).
At the time, social enterprise SMR accused Torridge district council of rejecting all its ideas on how to maintain the recycling service – something the council refuted. SMR also urged the council to continue separating the material at the kerbside, as it had done.
It said: “SMR really hopes that TDC will continue to collect the recycling as source separated material and are not considering the cheaper collection option of landfilling all the material, with the much higher disposal costs picked up by Devon County Council and therefore the council tax payers of Devon.”
Service
The council said that over the past week, its officers had built an “entirely new service, from scratch” which would be delivered in-house, as is already the case with the council’s refuse collection service.
Collections will be carried out on the same days as before and for the same materials. The only difference is that materials will not be sorted at the kerbside, but later in a materials recycling facility (MRF).
The MRF which will be used is yet to be confirmed, pending final contractual agreement.
The council said that collecting the material in this way would allow for “a much smoother and quicker collection method with the separation and grading of materials occurring at a later stage”.
Residents will be able to put out their recycling in the same receptacles they used previously – green box, green and brown bags.
A fleet of vehicles have been acquired to operate the scheme and 13 local people have been employed to deliver the service, including some who previously worked for South Molton Recycle.
During the current week the council also said it would continue with the deployment of further ‘bring site’ facilities to support recycling before kerbside services resumed. These will be advertised on local posters across the district.
Residents
The announcement is expected to come as a relief to residents, who had complained about having to travel long distances to recycle.
One resident had complained on Twitter: “Sooooo annoying that our #recycling company has gone bust! We have to drive 18 miles to recycle our stuff! Not good enough #Torridge”.
Commenting on the new service, Councillor James Morrish, deputy leader at Torridge district council, said: “This is fantastic news following the totally unexpected and unprecedented cessation of collections forced on the council just over a week ago. It’s really down to the team effort of councillors, officers and third party partners in pulling out all the stops to quickly find a sustainable way forward. However none of this would have been possible without the cooperation and support of our residents, who have really shown great patience, understanding and commitment to helping us during this difficult period.
“Bring sites have been well used and it really shows the extra effort people have made to continue recycling and protecting the environment. The community spirit shown really demonstrates a united Torridge at its best.”
‘Seamless’
Verna Green, the council’s strategic manager for services, added: “The logistics involved in bringing the service in-house has been a huge hurdle to overcome, but through the goodwill of residents and hard work of everyone involved a solution has been devised and will now be implemented. Because collections will be on the same day and for the same materials as previously, we hope that this will provide a seamless transition for residents to the new service.
“We will now move forward to assessing a process for assisted collections and distribution of bags and boxes for new residents, but this should quickly follow in the coming weeks.”
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