Guildford Borough Council, which spent 634,950 net on recycling in 2001/02, received two stars in a report just issued by the Commission following an inspection last December. The service, which also includes street cleansing, is provided by an in-house team and was judged to be “good”.
Well-maintained recycling banks, kerbside collection for householders and free cardboard and paper recycling for commercial customers were seen as positive features of the service. The council’s green waste initiatives, including trial kerbside collection of green waste, subsidised home composting and a composting demonstration centre, were also commended.
But the inspectors said: “The council has not considered the role of commercial waste collection relating to the other waste services and the impact that it could have on recycling or income generation to support other services.”
On a more positive note, the recycling service’s new aims, which reflect recent Government targets, were described as “challenging” because they are more demanding than national targets.
The report also recommended that the council produces a plan of action to “test the competitiveness” of the in-house cleansing and recycling service.
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