Norwich launches kerbside recycling initiatives valued at 1million

Pilot

The kerbside initiative will herald the collection of paper and glass at this stage, with either fortnightly or weekly collections introduced to accompany the phased-in introduction of five new recycling vehicles operated by contractors CityCare.

Glass collected from the pilot project will be sent to Norfolk Environmental Waste Services and Paper will be sent for recycling to Holmen, although no figures have been released on how much these recyclables will be sold for per tonne.

Norwich is defined by DEFRA as a low performing
council in terms of recycling, therefore, the council has focused 700,000 of the 1million towards its “low performance turnaround”.

Funding

Through 1 million of DEFRA funding from the Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund, Norwich City Council says it intends to invest in doubling recycling rates form its current 9% of household waste to 18% for 2003 to 2004 targets.

The “turnaround” is defined by the council as: developing a doorstep scheme for paper and glass, purchasing new vehicles, publicity, the appointment of a recycling officer for one year and to introduce 10,000 composters and smaller wheeled bins.

The remaining 300,000 of funding will be dedicated towards improving bring bank sites as well as providing some underground bring bank sites for blocks of flats. These, said a council spokeswoman, “will remove temptations for vandals to set-fire to discarded paper or smash recyclables such as glass as well”.

Bring sites

The 300,000 will also cover extending its handy tip scheme – which consists of a dust cart that goes around the city and collects recyclables from people that have no private transport to take them to recycling sites.

Councillor Jane Rooza, executive member for the environment who launched the first stage of the series of new recycling initiatives, said: “Recycling is an issue that everyone needs to take notice of as we cannot continue to put all our waste into landfill. The new initiatives we are introducing is designed to make recycling easier for people, thereby encouraging more people to join in”