Wastesavers announced this week (April 24) that it had begun delivering food waste and cardboard bins to blocks of flats. The roll out is expected to be complete by the end of June 2012.
At present flats in the city have four 360 litre communal bins a separate one for cans, glass, paper and plastics. Now they will also receive a 360 litre bin for cardboard alongside a 240 litre bid for food waste. Residents will also receive their own kitchen food waste caddies and a years supply of compostable liners.
Over 100 blocks of flats that do not have any recycling facilities in the city at present will also see the service introduced over the next 12 months.
The service has been tailored to make it easier for residents in flats to recycle, where there is not space for residents to keep the two recycling boxes provided to residents living in houses.
Penny Williams of Wastesavers, which is a community recycling organisation, said: We are aware that people living in flats are often limited for space and storage, and that they would find it difficult to each have a blue and green box. In order to help, we provide bespoke communal recycling bins to flat blocks which residents can use whenever they need to. We want to provide flats residents with the same opportunity to recycle as other households.
Vehicle
Ms Williams said the company had taken delivery of a new bespoke vehicle two months ago which had allowed Wastesavers to add card and food waste to its recycling service for flats.
She explained: The main driver to the collections was the vehicle. We couldnt find a vehicle that would allow us to collect food waste and cardboard at the same time but source segregated. We had quite a specific budget but Ecofar has provided us with a vehicle which has a 15 tonne chassis with a compactor on the back for the cardboard and a bit on the front which we can put food waste in.
The remaining dry recyclables cans, glass, paper and plastics with continue to be collected on a separate vehicle with individual compartments for each material. The food waste and dry recyclables will be collected on a weekly basis whilst residual waste is collected fortnightly.
Wastesavers recycling service has previously been held up as a shining example of a kerbside sort service (see letsrecycle.com story) and Ms Williams said this meant the quality of material collected was high.
She said: We find that source segregated collections works well for us in Newport and we are getting a good quality material out of this. We know that with source segregated collection we can recycle everything we collect.
Ms Williams said she hoped the collection schedule would encourage more residents to recycle their food waste separately. The council is also hoping it will help to meet the target set by the Welsh Government to recycle 52% of its waste by 2012/13 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Once collected the food waste will be sent to New Earth Solutions in-vessel composting facility in Gloucestershire.
Kerbside
At present Wastesavers collects a range of material at the kerbside every week on behalf of the council. This includes cans, foils, metals, plastics and glass in a green recycling box and paper, textiles, printer cartridges and mobile phones in a blue recycling box. Food waste is also collected by Wastesavers in a caddy. Meanwhile the council operates a fortnightly garden waste and residual waste collection in wheeled bins.
In the coming months Wastesavers is aiming to help the council expand the range of materials collected at the kerbside and is next month looking to launch a weekly collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
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