The city has already achieved a reduction in its annual waste arisings to just 1% per annum but now sees tackling the residual volumes as the only way to ensure it hits recycling targets. The council is concerned that some residents are not making full use of recycling bins and is also to start collecting green waste for composting.
Councillors are to be told at a meeting of the city's Scrutiny Community Committee next week of the urgent need for action. Reports of the council's plans which are likely to include a ban on additional waste outside of wheeled containers have already prompted criticism from some local residents. Residents in most parts of the city currently have two 240 litre bins, green and black, for recyclables and residual waste.
Despite having recycling facilities which include its own materials recycling facility and completing the roll out of the kerbside recycling scheme Recycle from Home this year, Exeter will still only recycle about 20% of its waste.
In the report to councillors, a number of options have been considered. The most effective, said a council spokesman, appear to be those that make a large increase in the tonnage of recycled material collected and which reduce the overall tonnage of waste collected.
Difficult
“We face some really difficult choices to reach the 30% target, said Councillor Barry McNamara, Lead Councillor for environment and leisure. “We have looked at the options and believe those being proposed will be the most effective. However we know we need to get the detail of these schemes right so they will work for local people and be fair.
“We will be consulting people over the next few months for their views before announcing how the new proposals will work. We hope residents will find it helpful having three collections available to them each fortnight instead of the current two.”
Councillors at the Scrutiny Committee will be commenting on proposals being put to the Executive on the November 18. The proposals are to:
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introduce a special garden waste collection
- stop garden waste going in the grey bins
- ban extra bags of “grey” waste beyond the usual one grey bin load
- provide an additional enforcement officer to stop green bin contamination
Exeter recycling officer Paul Marten told letsrecycle.com: ” We see a waste minimisation policy as a way of helping to encourage people to recycle their household waste. We will be introducing a ban on green waste in the household waste stream as this does make up a considerable part of the waste in some areas of the city.”
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