Manchester to vote on major recycling service overhaul

The council's executive will consider the raft of proposals at a meeting next Wednesday (September 10), as the city looks to boost its household recycling rate from 21.6% in 2007-8 to 36.6% by 2010-11.

The plans reflect the results of a large-scale public consultation that was held across the city at the end of May 2008 and received 25,000 responses.

And, the council's executive member for the environment, councillor Richard Cowell, claimed that the proposals were driven by the strong public response to the consultation.

“The fact that more than 25,000 people responded is a definitive sign that they believe their views will be listened to and acted on,” he said.

“Although we knew Manchester residents were committed to recycling, their enthusiasm exceeded all our expectations and it is clear they support our ambition of turning the city into a cleaner, greener place to live.

“In response to the consultation, we will be providing the recycling services our residents and businesses have told us they want, and giving everyone the opportunity to play their part,” he added. “With their support I now feel confident that we can become the recycling capital of the UK.”

Materials 

Among Manchester's plans is a proposal to dramatically increase the range of materials that are collected via the kerbside recycling service offered by the council's waste and recycling collection contractor, Enterprise.

Currently, 103,000 households in Manchester receive a four-weekly recycling collection using a twin bin system to collect paper, glass and cans (which are stored in a bag), while a further 66,000 have a fortnightly collection of glass, cans, textiles and paper which uses a box and bag.

However, under the plans which will be considered by the executive, all residents would receive kerbside collections of paper, card, glass, plastic bottles, cans, food, textiles, shoes, and, more unusual, drinks cartons.

And, the report also recommends that, “where practicable”, waste and recycling collections should take place at the same time.

Food

The executive is also asked to approve a number of other changes, including extending the fortnightly wheeled bin garden waste service currently offered to 85,000 households to include food waste, as well as extending the number of households that can access the service.

Other proposals include a “financial subsidy” for residents who use Real Nappies instead of disposable ones, an installation programme of high quality street recycling bins and the development of a recycling strategy to help businesses. A model bring site could even be developed for free business recycling in the city centre to test the feasibility of the approach.

It is estimated that nett of reduced landfill costs and income from recyclates, the improvements can be accommodated within an already-approved £1 million growth in the waste and recycling budget – provided that money towards the Greater Manchester PFI is found elsewhere and there are major increases in recycling participation.