Peterborough in bid to hit 40% recycling rate by 2006

The initiative will see the roll out of 240-litre brown bins to the 70,000 households in Peterborough, which will allow the collection of organic garden waste. The brown bin will compliment the green bin that the council already uses to collect plastic, cans and cardboard.

” It will result in around 67% of former black bin rubbish being diverted to recyclable material, including compost from the garden waste “
– Cllr John Peach
The council is also to switch to an alternate weekly collection service, with black waste bins collected one week and the green and brown recycling/garden waste bins collected on the following week.

The council told letsrecycle.com it had secured funding from Defra to add glass to its green bin collection service. But, Peterborough needs to modify its materials recycling facility and hopes to introduce the service just before Christmas. The council is also considering adding a food waste collection service to its brown bin scheme within two years.

Peterborough believes that the scheme will see its recycling rate increase from 27% to around 40% over the next 12 months.

Peterborough has introduced the scheme to reach its landfill allowance targets. Among the council's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme targets, the council has been set a limit of sending no more than 34,135 tonnes to landfill by 2010. At the moment it sends around 60,000 tonnes a year in 2003/04.

Involved

Councillor John Peach, cabinet member for the environment for the city council, said: “We hope residents will recognise the importance of this scheme and get enthusiastically involved. It will result in around 67% of former black bin rubbish being diverted to recyclable material, including compost from the garden waste.

“We will be listening to residents' views about the new scheme and look to shape it around their needs to enable us to deliver an improved service. We welcome any comments and suggestions they may have,” he added.

The new scheme will be introduced to residents over the next nine months in a planned and managed way starting towards the end of March with the first phase of the roll out. This will be followed by two other rollouts later this year taking place in July nad September.