The pink vehicle is raising awareness of both breast cancer and recycling, as SITA bids to improve the district's kerbside recycling service over the next seven years.
 A new pink collection vehicle is raising awareness of breast cancer and recycling in the East Devon district |
One of the first changes in the contract will be the introduction of more recycling boxes for the collection of paper, tins and bottles – these should be provided to all households across the district by October.
East Devon council has said recycling collections will soon include cardboard and plastic, with collections switching from fortnightly to weekly by 2008.
Along with its strengthening of recycling services, SITA also aims to provide residents with residual waste bins. Previously residents simply placed the bags out for collection.
Strategy
The changes come under the council's waste strategy, which was developed in 2004. East Devon produces over 45,000 tonnes of waste every year, and in 2004/05 achieved a recycling rate of 16%. The council has a statutory recycling target to reach a 27% rate in 2005/06.
Under its waste strategy East Devon has also set itself targets to recycle 40% of waste by 2010, moving up to 50% by 2020.
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Mark Reilly, head of streetscene for the council, said: “The new contract is the way we propose to implement that strategy by improving the collection service. We intend to encourage those households that are already keen to recycle to do more.
“But we must also make it more attractive for people who currently do not bother with recycling. We plan to do this by offering them a container for refuse and making more frequent recycling collections. We will also be considering a separate collection of kitchen and organics waste for composting after 2008,” he added.
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