Waste management firm Verdant has linked up with community enterprise agency Mentor Mon to run the scheme, for which plans are now being finalised.
The “Cleanstream” service is set to start next month, with residents in Holyhead to be provided with two recycling boxes – one for glass, cans, plastic and textiles and the other for paper. These boxes will be collected each week.
” This partnership can achieve something significant for Anglesey.“
– Roger Edwards, Verdant
In total, around 10,000 households will receive the scheme, which should divert about 2,000 tonnes of material from landfill each year.
Anglesey was among the bottom four councils in Wales in the latest municipal waste recycling results, for 2003/04, announced earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story). The county council achieved a recycling rate of just 12.9% for municipal waste. However, as one of five “exemplar” councils in Wales, the council is receiving additional funding to reach a tough 50% recycling rate target by 2007.
The two-year Cleanstream project will use three seven-and-a-half tonne collection vehicles, each with a two-man crew. Two vehicles will be operated by Verdant, which already holds the main street and beach cleaning, domestic and trade waste collection, and recycling service contract on Anglesey. The third vehicle will be run by Menter Mon.
Significant
Roger Edwards, development director of Verdant, said: “This partnership can achieve something significant for Anglesey. The Cleanstream partnership is a legal agreement that we believe is the first of its kind in Wales to link a local authority, the private sector and the local community.
“With 90 staff here, we are already a major employer and would like to replicate this extension of our community ethos elsewhere,” Mr Edwards added.
Community group Mentor Mon received support for the project from the European Union's Objective One Programme – administered by the Welsh Assembly – which allocates funds for improving deprived areas through economic, infrastructure, community and environmental regeneration.
Contribution
According to Kelly Thomas, Menter Mon's Cleanstream project manager, the new scheme will enable people in deprived areas in Holyhead to make their own contribution to the island's efforts to reduce waste.
“The funding accessed by Mentor Mon will help deliver a new service to Holyhead residents. With the help of Verdant and the county council, they will be able to play their part in boosting recycling and reducing waste, which will have local and island-wide benefits,” said Ms Thomas.
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Merion Edwards, the county council's principal waste management officer, added: “Our regeneration efforts include environmental improvement and we're delighted that the Cleanstream project will help the community to recycle more and waste less.
“All the local authorities face tough new government targets for improving recycling, and I'm confident the residents of Holyhead will respond very positively to this initiative. It will benefit them, the Island and the country as a whole,” she added.
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