Middlesbrough rolls out kerbside recycling scheme

Abitibi Recycling is organising the collections for the council – alongside its local agent Wards Recycling and reprocessors Berryman Glass, Novelis Recycling, Corus and Salvation Army Trading.

David Jaffa of Abitibi, councillor Bob Kerr and Ken Sherwood, both of Middlesbrough council, show off the new council's new recycling service

The expanded kerbside scheme will include paper, glass bottles and jars, cans, aluminium foil and textiles. The council believes that the new system will increase Middlesbrough's recycling rate, 10% in 2004/05, to 15% by the end of 2006.

A total of 55,000 households are included on the scheme, around 95% of the borough. Middlesbrough is now looking into the options for high rise flats to ensure kerbside coverage of 100% of households.

Abitibi will receive a management fee from the council, and on top of that will receive additional payments based on the amount of waste they recycle. Abitibi will also keep any returns from the recyclables that it sells on.

Incineration

Middlesbrough has long relied on an incinerator to deal with its waste and only sent 3% of its waste to landfill in 2004/05. Because of this the unitary authority has not had to worry too much about its landfill diversion targets, however it is does have recycling targets and public perception to adhere to.

Ken Sherwood, Middlesbrough's waste services manager said: “The goal of Middlesbrough council continues to be to maximise its recycling performance by offering customer focused sustainable recycling collections.

“We are now looking forward to offering a plastic collection service in the future and we are looking forward to trialling a green waste service as well,” he added.

Abitibi introduced a blue bag scheme for the collection of paper to the council in the late 1990's. It has said that the new multi-material scheme has helped increase the amount of paper collected.

The one-year trial generated 1,200 tonnes of multi-materials, of which paper accounted for 53%.

Ron Humphreys, managing director at Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, said: “The figures reflect our experience elsewhere, wherever we introduce a multi-material kerbside collection scheme paper tonnage rise, generally accounting for 60% of the total.”