The flood-hit district has achieved a 51.78% recycling rate for April to June 2007, councillors revealed a cabinet meeting on Thursday. This achievement has been heavily reliant on green waste, but the district is seeing a steady increase in dry recycling collection rates and a steady decrease in waste going to landfill.
We must not rest on our laurels. We can all do more to cut the amount of waste being sent to landfill sites.
Cllr Lynden Stowe, Cotswold disctrict council
And, with the county of Gloucestershire pushing for residents to have the capability of recycling 70% of their waste, a new collection service is now on the cards for the Cotswolds.
A new scheme could involve the collection of food waste along with green waste, switching organic collections from fortnightly to weekly, while residual collections could move to a fortnightly cycle.
Negotiations are under way with contractor SITA and Gloucestershire county council concerning plans that could be put into practice as early as this time next year.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Thursday, council leader Cllr Lynden Stowe said: “Although recycling rates tend to be higher in the Spring, this is five percentage points up on the same period last year and shows that the message that we must all reduce, reuse and recycle more has struck a chord with our communities.
“But we must not rest on our laurels. We can all do more to cut the amount of waste being sent to landfill sites,” he added.
Flooding
The Cotswolds district has been one of the areas of England affected by major flooding over the weekend, with the council now offering to collect flood-damaged items from householders.
Mike Harris, waste communications officer for the council said that thankfully waste collections had been carried out on Friday just before the flash-flooding hit. However, he said some bring banks had been affected by the floods, including a 20-tonne load in Chipping Campden, while expectations were that residents will require damaged furniture, appliances and carpet collected.
The officer told letsrecycle.com he was unsure how the floods would affect local recycling rates. “We'll be able to recycle the white goods, which are collected separately, but the rest we won't be able to,” he said.
Materials
Away from the floods, the council currently offers a fortnightly kerbside collection of glass, cans, paper and garden waste, while cardboard, plastic bottles, foil and textiles can be taken to recycling bank sites.
Last week's cabinet meeting gave the go-ahead to a £25,764 programme of expanding the number of bring banks available in the district, and the range of materials that can be collected for recycling. This will bring the number of plastic bottle banks in the Cotswolds up to 29, but the council has ruled out collecting plastic bottles from the kerbside.
Cllr Stowe explained: “The kerbside collection of plastic bottles is not economically viable in the Cotswolds but we do want to make it easier for residents to recycle. We are therefore introducing plastic bottle banks at sites where there are currently gaps in our coverage.”
Business scheme
Cotswold district council is now achieving some of the highest recycling rates in the county, and is looking to expand its efforts further still with a new commercial recycling scheme for local businesses.
Last week's cabinet meeting approved £24,700 in funding from the district's Economic Development Fund for a service that councillors hope will allow businesses to recycle up to 90% of their waste.
The scheme, which has already been running in the neighbouring district of Stroud, will be run with Stroud-based social enterprise group Y-waste and Gloucester-based collection firm Smiths, beginning in Cirencester and four other market towns in September.
Carole Garfield, co-founder and director of Y-waste, said: “businesses have responded positively to this new scheme, which was first set up in response to demand from traders in Stroud, who wanted to recycle more. We now look forward to working with many more businesses in the Cotswolds.”
• Gloucestershire county council is considering issuing a compulsory purchase order to secure 12 acres of land near Junction 12 of the M5 for a new landfill. Its cabinet agreed on Thursday to look into the measure, after several months of negotiations with the landowner of the site at Javelin Park. Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said it could take seven years before any new waste treatment facility is brought on stream. The county abandoned its £350m PFI procurement process in 2005 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Register for free to comment