SITA launches recycling for 208,000 households in North East

The new scheme will pick up newspapers, magazines, glass, cans, plastic bottles and textiles from 208,000 households every fortnight by February 2004. The initial stage will see 60,000 householders given their black plastic boxes by mid-July.

Once the scheme is fully operational, 14 vehicles will be used for the service, which will have 20 employees. The scheme will be a major component of Newcastle and North Tyneside's ambitions to reach 10% recycling rates by 2003-04 and 18% by 2005-06.

Commenting on the new service, Linda Wright, Newcastle city council’s cabinet member for environment, public health and safety, said: “We now all have the opportunity to recycle more and I hope the people of Newcastle will become involved in recycling from their homes.

She continued: “The council have listened to what people have asked for and invested in this service which we want to be a success. It is good news for the council and for the people of Newcastle and, perhaps most significantly of all, it’s good news for the environment.”

Peter Gillatt, SITA UK’s chief operating officer for treatment, said: “This is good news for both SITA UK and the residents of Newcastle and North Tyneside. We are looking forward to working with both councils and the local community to get the new scheme off the ground and helping them to achieve their targets for recycling. Everybody has their part to play in achieving the targets and the new scheme will help residents play their part.”

A SITA spokesperson told letsrecycle.com that they are already seeing 80% participation rates in the service, and expect to collect around 18,000 tonnes of material in the first six months of the scheme. Paper from the scheme will go to Shotton Paper, glass to United Glass in Alloa, steel cans to Corus and aluminium cans to Alcan.

Closure
However, SITA employees have questioned the timing of the launch of the new service, which came in the same week that staff learned SITA is to close its regional office in the North East. Staff at the Team Valley office in Gateshead are being consulted on a redundancy programme by SITA management, and it is thought that 30 to 40 jobs could be lost, although SITA would not confirm this figure. Operations including the new kerbside service in Newcastle and North Tyneside are now to be run from the Doncaster office.

A SITA spokesperson told letsrecycle.com that the closure of the Gateshead office was part of an ongoing restructuring of the company being carried out under SITA UK's new chief executive Per-Anders Hjort (see letsrecycle.com story).

The spokesperson said: “Last month SITA UK announced a fundamental re-organisation of its operations across the country. The changes have been instigated by SITA UK to re-focus its business and to ensure it meets the needs of its customers more effectively.

“SITA UK’s existing structure will change from a regionally based operation to one that will focus around two key areas of waste management – collection and treatment. SITA UK’s management board feel that these changes will ensure that the Company is in an even stronger market position to take full advantage of the expected market growth in the UK waste market.”

She added: “SITA UK is ensuring that all its staff at affected offices are properly consulted during this period of change and where possible, will be relocated.”