High-rise flats in Lincoln offered recycling scheme

Three blocks of flats – Jarvis House, Shuttleworth House and Trent View – are to receive 1,280 litre recycling containers, which will be situated on specially created concrete bases adjacent to the buildings.

From left: City of Lincoln recycling officer Barrie Billinghay, EMR managing director Colin Iles and Lincoln environmental promotions officer Ian Taylor celebrate the Reload grant

The containers will allow residents to recycle their plastic, paper, cardboard, metal and textiles. At present, all the rubbish produced by the flats is sent down a chute to a skip, which is then landfilled.

Each of the 300 individual flats will also receive a green recycling bag to carry their recyclables to the bin. The bag is made from jute, a natural biodegradable fibre.

The scheme is being introduced because the council's black box system – used by the rest of the city – has not been feasible for the flats.

Barrie Billinghay, recycling officer for Lincoln said: “The new scheme will make the service available to a group of people for whom it has not been available in the past. We hope it is going to inspire the residents to recycle and we'll be weighing the amount of material we take away to assess how well it is working.

Expansion

“If it is successful we may look as installing this type of provision for lower rise flats in Lincoln where recycling rates are generally low,” he added.

Residents will be receiving an advisory letter this week which will detail how to use the new scheme in English, Arabic and Farsi sue to the large number of non-English speaking inhabitants. The scheme is set to be rolled out by Christmas.

The 5,000 grant which made the scheme possible was provided by the European Metal Recycling Reload Fund which the council submitted a bid to earlier this year.

Daniel O&#39C;onnor, managing director of Mayer Environmental which runs the EMR Reload Fund said: “This is an innovative project, which for the first time gives people living in Lincoln's high-rise flats the opportunity to recycle at home and contribute more to improving the city's recycling rate.”

Lincoln city council recycled just over 11.3% of its household waste in 2002/03, but this rose to 16.5% in 2003/04 with the roll-out of 28,000 green wheeled bins for garden waste across the city. Lincoln has a target to reach a 30% recycling rate by 2005/06.