As a new kerbside recycling service for glass and paper started for 14,000 households in West Dorset this week, the county council told letsrecycle.com has finished the roll-out of its dry recyclable collection schemes.
” We have finished our dry recyclable roll outs and will now look to collect organic waste from the kerbside.“
– Lisa Marshall, Dorset CC
The county has now achieved a 97% coverage for its kerbside recycling schemes among 175,000 households, which has helped Dorset reach a 39% recycling rate on average. Dorset households generate 210,000 tonnes of waste every year.
The next step will be introducing new kerbside organic collections, which have already begun in three districts. East Dorset council is collecting from 13,000 households, Weymouth and Portland from 12,500 and North Dorset has trialled a collection among 6,000 homes.
Collected waste is taken to Eco Composting's plant at Hurn, near Christchurch, which has the capacity to handle 12,000 tonnes of kitchen waste each year, but is only taking in around 3,500 at present.
Dorset is now aiming for its other districts – Christchurch, Purbeck and West Dorset – to move towards establishing kitchen waste collection services.
Lisa Marshall, waste strategy implementation officer at the county council, said: “We have finished our dry recyclable roll outs and will now look to collect organic waste from the kerbside. Several districts are already concentrating on organic collections and we hope to get the other councils on board soon. We are hoping to have 60 to 80% of the households on the scheme.”
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Ms Marshall revealed that the county council is hoping to build as many as three mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants in order to deal with residual waste from Dorset households.
She said: “The first plant will be needed by 2010 and will be built in the west of the county, a second in the east will be added by 2012. If more are needed in order to meet landfill targets, a third may also be built.”
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