North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Sunderland and Gateshead councils began the expansion of kerbside collections across the region last year. The materials collected fortnightly in 55 litre boxes include paper, glass, cans, plastic bottles and textiles.
All five councils continue were originally looking to let a joint collection contract, which was later split into two. The two local authorities north of the river have a collection contract with Sita UK and Premier Recycling has been contracted by the three councils south of the river.
Sector analysts have recently highlighted the rapid improvement in recycling service provision in the North East, which previously had a reputation for low recycling rates.
David Davies, who produced the Aylesford Newsprint's Recycling Atlas published earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story), said: “Historically, the North East has been the region that has been lagging.
“But we have seen significant change in provision of services there, with the North East actually having the highest proportion of households serviced. Although this hasn’t come through into the tonnage figures yet, there has been real change there,” he added.
Collections
Newcastle and North Tyneside began the roll out of kerbside collections in June 2003 to a total of 195,000 households with the final phase being completed in February 2004.
Gearoid Henry, recycling officer for Newcastle city council, told letsrecycle.com: “In the North East there has been a huge increase in kerbside recycling in the last 12 months.”
Newcastle has a 10% recycling rate target for the end of this month and with the new kerbside collection in place Mr Henry is confident the council will reach this. He estimated that the scheme has collected 4,000 tonnes of recyclables up to this point, meeting the council's expectations.
South of the river Tyne, the three councils are also seeing encouraging results. South Tyneside and Gateshead councils jointly launched a 2.7 million kerbside scheme covering 150,000 properties last year (see letsrecycle.com story).
South Tyneside borough council estimates that the new service will increase its recycling rate from 8% to 12% in its first year.
Andy Whittaker, South Tyneside council’s recycling officer, said: “The scheme will put the public at the forefront of recycling and they will play a vital role in helping the borough to meet government targets. It is our aim to make it easier for people to recycle.”
Next steps
Newcastle's Mr Henry said that although the kerbside collections are now in place the five councils still get together regularly to discuss experiences and possible improvements to the service.
He explained: “We have put in the collections to all households and what we have got to do now is make sure that everyone is aware of the service and is using it. It is our baseline and we must build on it.”
Next in line for Newcastle council is to expand recycling services to all high rise properties. These services involve communal containers for recyclables placed usually with the refuse containers.
Mr Henry explained that the council received 92,000 from DEFRA in 2002 to investigate recycling in 24 of around 40 high rise blocks in the city. Now the kerbside roll out is complete, the council is looking to expand the recycling services to all 5,000 high rise households by this summer and then to the 15,000 medium rise properties over the next few years.
For other councils like Gateshead and South Tyneside, rolling out a kerbside green waste collection is the next priority.
Councillor Peter Boyack, South Tyneside's lead member for Neighbourhood Services says: “Together with our kerbside recycling service green waste collection will help us surpass the challenging recycling and composting targets set by the government for the next three years. Some of the new green bins have been paid for following a successful bid by the council for 100,000 of Neighbourhood Renewal Funding.”
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