The city has not prioritised recycling in the past and only achieved household waste recycling rates of 2% in 2002/03. But, last September the city launched a major kerbside recycling service with contractor Cheshire Recycling collecting paper from 150,000 households (see letsrecycle.com story).
 Liverpool councillor Richard Oglethorpe (right) with Cheshire Recycling's Chris Demetriou at the launch of the new service this week |
From Monday (22/03/04), cans and glass will also be included in the kerbside scheme, with boxes being delivered to 20,000 households throughout the city. The households are also being given Salvation Army bags for unwanted textiles.
Materials from the service will go to reprocessors including Alcan and Glass Recycling UK. It is hoped that the multi-materials service will be expanded to the rest of the city in the Autumn.
Success
Cllr Richard Oglethorpe, executive member for the environment at Liverpool, said: “Our kerbside paper recycling service has been a massive success since we started it last year and we want to build on that success.”
Cllr Oglethorpe said that council had had many requests from residents to expand the paper service, and that it was clear that people are supporting the service expansion.
The city has also recently expanded the number of its bring sites for paper, glass, cans and textiles from 25 to more than 100. Liverpool is aiming to improve its 2% recycling rate to 8 to 10% by the middle of 2004 and 16 to 18% by 2005/06.
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