Three of the council’s waste recycling centres will now accept most sheet glass. Being different to container glass, the donated sheet glass will have to be recycled separately. Householders will be able to recycle glass from windows, windscreens and other flat pieces of glass but not heat resistant glass.
The glass is sent to Viridor Richardson’s depot in St Helen’s, Merseyside, to be recycled. The council is charged 45 per skip load, each skip load weighing eight or nine tonnes.
John Cherry, contract compliance officer for the council, said: “I’m hoping we’ll get around 100 tonnes per year.” He added that it was early days for the scheme and realistic figures would only be generated once all the recycling centres were able to accept sheet glass.
Tony Brotherton, waste contracts manager at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “Our site surveys and discussions with site users have indicated that they want more facilities. Sheet glass can easily be recycled. We continue to listen to our customers and improve the waste recycling centres through a phased improvement programme.”
Targets
Additionally, Oxfordshire County Council has asked the government to increase its recycling rate targets for next year.
Oxfordshire is one of only six groups that chose pooled government recycling targets for the two levels of local government. The Government set a 20% recycling rate target for the county council, which the county has now exceeded.
The county council has asked the Government to increase its target to 22% by April 2004. If the council fails to meet the new centrally set target the Government can use fines and sanctions.
Adam Symons, waste strategy manager for Oxfordshire County Council, said: “Together with the district councils, we worked hard to get pooled targets, to bring the average individual councils throughout the county closer. We feel that it helps us work together if we have similar targets. The Government only allowed us to do this on the condition that Oxfordshire increased its own target voluntarily.”
The county council and its district councils have also announced that they have met their recycling targets for this year.
The district councils and Oxford City Council had targets ranging from 12% to 33% for 2003/04. For 2005/06 the county council has a government target of 30% and the district and city councils have targets ranging from 18% to 36%.
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