The second round of DEFRA's 140 million was announced last week (see letsrecycle.com story)
. The government received a total of 357 bids for the 76.4m on offer, bids that amounted to over three times the funding available.
Among the first successful councils to set out how their money will be spent are Bath and North East Somerset, which won 755,441, Leicestershire, awarded 1,188,000 and Northamptonshire, which received 493,000.
Bath
The first English council to sign up to the Zero Waste Charter, Bath and North East Somerset has been at the forefront of waste matters among the UK's local authorities. The council has been visited by various recycling officers from other local authorities to pass on their knowledge of Best Practice concerning waste and recycling.
Part of a total of 4.6 million from the DEFRA fund won by councils in the South West area, the 755,441 for Bath and NE Somerset will be going towards a garden waste and cardboard collection scheme.
The hope is that the award will help the district increase its household waste recycling rate from 27% to around 50%. The new service will be fortnightly, with cardboard collected free of charge and green waste collected through the sale of paper sacks and the rental of wheeled bins. The material will be composted locally to produce a “high quality soil conditioner”.
Commenting on the award, the council's waste services manager, Carole Tunnard, said: “This funding is great news and it will help us to develop a district-wide collection scheme for cardboard, which is one of the more difficult waste streams to tackle. Bath and North East Somerset council is committed to developing recycling services to their maximum potential having adopted a long-term vision of zero waste.”
Northamptonshire
A partnership of Northamptonshire councils including Corby borough council, Daventry district council, East Northamptonshire council, Kettering borough council, Northampton borough council and South Northamptonshire council won almost 500,000 from the DEFRA fund for a waste education and recycling programme for schools.
The project will specifically target young people and teachers with a mobile waste education centre to tour county schools, a dedicated schools waste education advisor to help children and teachers learn about waste issues and set up a schools recycling system.
“This is a very welcome investment,” said county council member for the environment Jim Wade. “It is vital we get the message of the importance of recycling and reducing waste to as many young people as possible. They are the future and we need to get them on board.”
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