The new service came when Southampton scrapped original plans of a glass recycling service because its councilors chose to revert to weekly refuse collections rather than alternate weeks. (see letsrecycle.com story).
”We certainly believe that if all the residents take to the scheme we will bring in a significant yield“
– Andrew Trayer, Southampton council
Southampton said the resumption of weekly residual waste collections had made its original proposal for a glass recycling service impossible. Defra was ultimately happy for the grant to be switched to green waste recycling, the council told letsrecycle.com.
In March of this year councillors took the decision to expand its green waste collection to the entire garden-owning population of the city. Southampton has had a chargeable green waste collection since October 2003, with around 6,000 of its residents have been on the scheme.
The scheme will now be free of charge and will be offered to about 55,000 households. Residents will be provided with a 110 litre reusable sack for the green waste, which will be collected once a fortnight.
Increase
Based on the amount of green waste that was collected from the 6,000 residents on the chargeable scheme, Southampton city council believes its recycling rate will increase by about nine percentage points once the wider scheme gets going.
Andrew Trayer, waste management and recycling manager at Southampton council, said: “We certainly believe that if all the residents take to the scheme, we will bring in a significant yield. The scheme will need to be supported properly, though. It will need to be well advertised and monitored to make sure green waste is being collected in the sacks.
“Grass in the residual waste bin will now be seen as a contaminant – it is unreasonable for someone to put green waste in the residual bin when a sack is already provided, free of charge, for its collection,” Mr Trayer added.
The sacks will be sent out in late June and a marketing campaign for the scheme will be started that month.
Southampton will use an open-back refuse vehicle for the collections. Mr Trayer said that the council had trialled a number of vehicles when it first started the green waste scheme and this was the vehicle that best suited the city.
The council believes it will be achieving a recycling rate of 18% during 2004/05. It is aiming to reach a target of 26.4% by 2005/06, which has been “stretched” by agreement with Defra from the original statutory target of 24% with the promise of additional funding.
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Because the decision was taken in March to go with the green waste scheme some residents had already paid up for this year's scheme. These residents will be refunded by the council, Mr Trayer said.
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