South Derbyshire district council is to decide whether to remove 73 bring sites to cut costs after a decline in their use following the start of a fortnightly kerbside recycling collection service in October 2013.
A report set to go before a council committee tomorrow (March 6 2014) recommends reducing the number of bring sites in the district from 83 to ten in order to save around 50,000 to offset the costs of the new kerbside green bin recycling scheme.
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The report states: The public perception of recycling is often that its an additional income stream for the council. The opposite is the reality. Recycling costs the authority money, although some costs are offset by the reduction in and credits from reduced landfill.
The council measured the impact of the Easy Green Recycling Scheme (EGRS), which started on October 7 last year, and found that overall the usage of the bring sites decreased by more than 50% and on average only 25% of the current capacity is being used.
The reduction in tonnage from the sites will impact on their financial viability and commercial appeal to the eight different contractors operating the sites, and the council fears that contractors may decide that the reduction in tonnage does not warrant the provision of a service and remove their banks from site irrespective of our wishes.
Anti-social behaviour
The 73 bring sites recommended for removal are generally those sites which return the lowest volume of recycling or generate a high number of anti-social issues, the report states.
‘The public perception of recycling is often that its an additional income stream for the council. The opposite is the reality. Recycling costs the authority money, although some costs are offset by the reduction in and credits from reduced landfill.’
South Derbyshire council report
According to the report, many of the existing sites generate complaints from local residents due to attracting fly tipping and anti-social behaviour problems previously outweighed by the environmental benefits of recycling convenience. However, the benefits of these sites have now been mitigated by the new kerbside scheme.
The removal of the sites will also end the councils Cash for Trash incentive scheme, which provided an average of 4,800 per year for local schools and voluntary groups which agreed to place paper recycling banks on their sites.
Nine of the 10 being retained, meanwhile, are on council-owned land and provide a reasonable geographical spread around the district.
The 10 bring sites in the district slated for retention are: Melbourne High Street car park; Swadlincote Rink Drive car park; Hatton Station Road car park; Hilton Main Street car park; Shardlow Wilne Lane car park; Willington Twyford Road playing field; Tricknall Ingleby Lane car park; Overseal Woodville Road; Midway Hillcrest; and Castle Gresley Basss Crescent.
Green bin service
Under the new green bin kerbside service, operated by Cheshire-based Palm Recycling, residents can place the likes of glass, cans, and plastic bottles in 240-litre wheeled green bins, which also have separate inner caddies for paper and cardboard. This replaced the previous separate green box and blue bags system.
Additionally, a red sack for textiles and a brown bin for compost are collected from households on a fortnightly basis alongside the green bins, alternating with fortnightly black refuse bins collections.
According to the council report, the service has been very well received and supported by residents, with the first three months of collections yielding 1,872 tonnes of recyclable materials which is more than double the quantity of the recyclate collected at the kerbside during the same period in the previous year.
It is hoped that the green bin service will increase the districts recycling rate above 50%. In 2012/13, the district recycled 45.2% of its waste.
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