Liverpool announces new multi-material recycling service

The city, which sits near the bottom of the league table for recycling, needs to increase its recycling rate from just over 10% to 20% to meet targets set by the government.

” Residents want to be able to recycle plastics and cardboard, and have their household rubbish collected at the same time as all of their recycling “
– Cllr Berni Turner, Liverpool CC
The city council believes Council Tax would have to rise by 100 on average if it does not meet its targets to divert waste from landfill.

Liverpool city council announced yesterday (Thursday) that it will expand multi-material recycling collections for 90,000 households in the city, with recycling boxes being replaced by larger wheeled bins.

Bins
The households will be given green wheeled bins for the collection of green waste and blue wheeled bins for the collection of recyclable glass, paper, cans, plastic and cardboard.

The green wheeled bins are to be delivered in November 2006, while the blue bins will go out in March next year.

Those households on the existing kerbside system, run by operator Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, will now add cardboard and plastic to the range of materials that can be collected.

Both green and blue wheeled bins will be collected every fortnight – on the same day – with residual waste collections remaining on a weekly cycle.

“Positive”
Cllr Berni Turner, Liverpool's executive member for the environment, said: “I'm very positive about the changes to the service and believe that it will help this city reach its recycling potential.

“Residents want to be able to recycle plastics and cardboard, and have their household rubbish collected at the same time as all of their recycling. We have taken this on board and we are giving people what they want,” Cllr Turner said.

The new wheeled bins, which will be collected by Liverpool's collection contractor Veolia Environmental Services, will feature Braille lids for the visually impaired and provide more capacity for recycling.

Cllr Turner said: “In November the service will be rolled out to residents who have enough space for the three bins. We're looking at ways in which we can extend the service to other people in the city and we'll be working closely with residents and ward councillors to find the best solution.

“I'm confident that our recycling figures will escalate and Liverpool will be cleaner and greener,” she said.