The scheme – which is being introduced in time for Christmas – aims to allow people currently not served by the south-west London borough's recycling boxes or communal recycling bins to recycle by making collected materials more accessible to the council's in-house recycling collection operators.
Councillor David Simpson, Merton council's cabinet member for the environment, said: “We are absolutely committed to raising recycling levels in the borough and reducing the amount of rubbish we send to landfill. We therefore want to make it as easy as possible for residents to recycle their waste.”
The service – which is expected to continue on a permanent basis following Christmas – is targeted at people without any room to store waste outside, such as those living in flats above shops or in houses which open onto main roads.
For the disposal of residual waste, residents will be given a three month supply of blue bags which will replace the black bags. Residents will also receive three months worth of purple bags, which are made from 97% recycled plastic.
Materials collected in the purple bag to be taken to Viridor Waste Management's MRF in Crayford, Kent, for reprocessing.
As part of the South London Waste Partnership – alongside Kingston, Croydon and Sutton councils – Merton signed two major contracts with Viridor Waste Management for waste management services in February and September 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, the partnership also submitted a bid to Defra for £109 million in PFI funding in October 2008, with a view to bringing new waste treatment facilities online in 2014/15.
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