Somerset offers queue-busting CA site recycling scheme

Starting from this month, residents are able to take their recycling boxes to any of the 18 household waste recycling centres in Somerset and pick up a replacement empty box – leaving council contractors to sort the materials in their original box.

” Those that have brought along their kerbside box can drop their goods and go – it is like the quick checkout at a supermarket.“
– Chris Jonas, Wyvern Waste
Wyvern Waste Management, the company that runs the CA sites and came up with the box-swapping idea, hopes it will cut traffic problems and queuing times for residents.

Green 50-litre or black kerbside recycling boxes can be filled with any of the materials normally recycled at the centres – including cardboard, garden waste, metal, timber, plastic bottles, bric-a-brac, soil paper, cans and glass.

Staff at the site then sort the materials themselves, and are able to wait until quieter periods of the day to carry out the sorting work.

Cost
Wyvern do not believe they will need to employ new staff, but will be increasing shifts for existing workers. Chris Jonas, Wyvern's general manager, said that company wanted to recycle more materials and the added cost was acceptable.

Mr Jonas explained: “There are times when the CA sites are very busy and queues develop, but with this scheme those that have brought along their kerbside box can drop their goods and go, this will cut down on the amount of traffic we have. It is like the quick checkout at a supermarket.”

Mr Jonas said that Wyvern was aiming to take an additional 100 tonnes a year across its sites through the Swap Your Box project.

Charity
For every box brought into the site during this first month of the scheme, Wyvern is to donate 10 pence to charity. The money will go to cancer charity McMillan Nurses, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, St Margaret's Hospice and Fiveways School.

Andrew Olie, Wyvern's managing director, said: “We thought this would be a good idea to help customers use our centres more quickly and hopefully encourage them to recycle more than they have ever done. At the same time we could raise hundreds, maybe even thousands of pounds for charity.”

Somerset currently recycles about 27% of its household waste, and though its statutory target has been capped by the government at 30%, the county is aiming to reach a self-imposed target of 40% by 2005/06.