The Hertfordshire borough, which includes Hemel Hempstead, Tring and Berkhamstead, switched from weekly black sack collections to alternate weekly refuse and organic/cardboard waste collections from wheeled bins in June 2003. The new service also includes a weekly recycling box service for plastic bottles, cans, newspapers, magazines and yellow pages.
In 2002-03, Dacorum achieved a 13% recycling rate but the council says it is now recycling 39% of the 52,000 tonnes of household waste collected each year. In one area of the borough the introduction of the new service has seen the recycling rate leap from just 9% to 46% in six months.
Rosemary Stevens, waste development officer at Dacorum council said that further increases are expected as the service is rolled out across the borough.
She said: “At the moment we are collecting from 20,000 households but by March 2005 it will be 48,000. It is all part of our waste strategy to cover all households with alternate week collections.”
Publicity
Alongside the new service, the council has delivered a widespread publicity campaign including posters, leaflets and calendars as well as roadshows, school activities and community talks.
In some areas in the UK, the introduction of alternate week refuse and recycling collections has met with a frosty reception from residents. But in Dacorum a recent survey showed that 95% of residents who had not been keen on the new service rated it as Excellent, Good or OK after the first six months of the scheme.
Ms Stevens said: “We have a dedicated hotline and two dedicated waste inspectors. So when anyone phones up and starts ranting and raving we send on of the inspectors round for a house visit. We find face-to-face contact really works.”
The survey also found that 31% of residents had been disposing of their garden waste using the weekly black sack refuse collections before they were offered green waste collections.
Cllr Herbert Chapman, environment portfolio holder at the council, said: “The response of residents has been wonderful. It is not always easy to adjust to such a fundamental service change, but I think people are realising that waste can no longer be dealt with in ways that are either out of sight or out of mind.”
The inspectors are also starting to check people's bins, she said, encouraging households seen misusing the scheme to recycle properly. Once the alternate week kerbside collection scheme has covered all 48,000 street level households, the council is looking to add glass to the dry recyclable collection and to provide recycling collections for flats.
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