Ryedale on course to smash 30% recycling rate target

The North Yorkshire district is currently auditing its 2004/05 recycling performance, but believes it has achieved a 22% rate. Ryedale is about to begin rolling out the second half of its alternate weekly collection service, and commercial services manager Phil Long said he believed the council would smash its 30% recycling rate target for 2005/06.

Mr Long said: “We have achieved an estimated 25% recycling rate in 2004/05 and that was with 50% of the properties on the alternate weekly scheme. By the end of this year the scheme should be rolled out to every household and we should crucify the 30% target.”

Under the Ryedale scheme, residents have a brown bin for garden waste, a box for dry recyclables – cans and glass – and a bag for paper. Ryedale has also put in place bring banks for plastic across the district.

The North Yorkshire council completed the first phase roll out of its alternate weekly collection in April 2004 to around half of the 22,900 households in the area.

Mr Long said the council had been pleased with the results of the scheme so far as residents had taken to the scheme very well. He said that there had been very few complaints from the first phase roll-out.

Farms
The council has initiated a system involving a network of local farms for the composting of the collected garden waste. The green waste is taken to the farms which windrow the waste into compost to be used on their grounds.

Mr Long explained: “We had heard of another authority trialling a similar scheme, although we don't think anyone has done it to this scale. It fits in with the proximity principle and the effect on the environment is minimal.”

The recyclables are bulked up by Yorkshire based collection company Todds Waste Management before being sent on for reprocessing, while the collected waste is sent to landfill at Yorwaste's Thorndale and Seamer Carr sites.

Ryedale is currently looking ahead at future ways to ensure recycling targets are met. At the moment the council is looking into the possibility of including plastic and cardboard on the kerbside scheme and starting a trade waste recycling scheme.