An exclusive survey carried out by letsrecycle.com indicates that the Lincolnshire authority’s household waste recycling rate has leapt from 39.4% for 2004/5 to 51.8% in the past year, making it a strong candidate for top spot in the full league table when it is published by Defra.
” Our council, led by Marion Brighton OBE, has led this drive to recycle. But the residents are the true champions. “
– Nina Camm, North Kesteven council
Suffolk authority St Edmundsbury council, which came first for 2004/5 (see letsrecycle.com story), is still compiling its figures before submission to Defra. But, a spokesman for the council said officers expected a similar result to the 50.6% achieved last year.
If this is the case, North Kesteven would just beat St Edmundsbury for the top spot. Mark Taylor, head of environmental services and building control at North Kesteven said: “We’re very pleased with the result this year and it would be terrific if we were top.
“It’s all down to the residents who have co-operated with us. We’ve only recently introduced collection of green waste recently, and people have welcomed it,” Mr Taylor said.
Residents
Nina Camm, environment manager for North Kesteven also paid tribute to residents, saying: “Our council, led by Marion Brighton OBE, has led this drive to recycle. But the residents are the true champions. Without their help we could not have been so successful.”
North Kesteven, a rural district of 44,000 households, that operates an in-house recycling service introducing kerbside recycling in 2002, when recycling stood at 2%. Now the council operates a three-bin system for dry, green and residual waste that is collected every fortnight alongside household waste recycling centres and bring banks.
This year, the council has achieved higher recycling rates in some areas than others. Mr Taylor said: “We’re hoping to continue to increase our rate by getting all the districts in this area up to the same, high level, through focused educational campaigns.”
Rushcliffe
Meanwhile, award-winning Rushcliffe borough council in Nottinghamshire, the sixth best recycling authority in 2004/05 with a recycling rate of 46%, looks set to join the 50% club with its performance for 2005/06.
Kevin Pickaver, project manager for Rushcliffe council, said: “The result is fantastic for us as council officers and for the public, to have a scheme they understand and that helps the environment.”
Mr Pickaver attributed the success to the introduction of a third recycling bin for paper, card, plastic and cans, courtesy of funding from Defra. The alternate-weekly service is operated directly by the council and is available to all 46,000 households in the district.
Mr Pickaver said: “Over the last four years we have worked extremely hard in raising our recycling and composting rates from below 10% through hard work and ongoing educational campaigns. I was very honoured to receive the letsrecycle.com champion award in 2005 and we have just been awarded Beacon status for all our hard work.”
” Over the last four years we have worked extremely hard in raising our recycling and composting rates from below 10% through hard work and ongoing educational campaigns. “
– Kevin Pickaver, Rushcliffe council
Top
Other top waste collection authorities in England for 2005/06 are likely to include South Cambridgeshire, which expects a recycling rate increasing to 49% from 47% in 2003/04; and Forest Heath, which expects to reach a similar rate to last year, around 48%.
In London, where recycling levels are generally below the national average, the borough of Barnet has reported a recycling rate of 27.5%. This is a 36% increase on its 20% figure for 2004/05 and meets the borough's government target of 27%, making the borough one of the best for recycling in the capital.
However, many high performing waste collection authorities have found it difficult to improve on high results from previous years. A spokesman for Forest Heath said that a 10% increase in contamination had stopped the local authority building on its previous success, even though services had improved.
In Cherwell, rates have also remained at 43%. Robbie Warden, waste policy and recycling officer for Cherwell district council said: “Spring didn’t kick in till late this year, which stopped people going outside from the cold and hit our compost tonnage. We were doing even better before then.”
LARAC
The increased recycling rates have been welcomed by Lee Marshall, chair of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee.
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Mr Marshall said: “While at this stage these are unaudited figures, I think they are very encouraging and show that we can maintain the momentum created in the last few years. In particular, it is good to see a lot more authorities in the 40% bracket.”
Mr Marshall said that the figures reflected a good response from the public and a lot of hard work by recycling officers. “Recycling officers have played an important part in this. If you have put in the wrong system or fail to publicise the scheme, then the results will show this and the public will not respond.”
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