Suez highlights Recycle More success in Mendip

Part of efforts to increase the region’s recycling rate from 52.4% in the 2018/19 financial year to 60%, the Recycle More service was introduced to around 53,000 homes in Mendip in the last week of October.

Mendip residents received a new blue bag to help them recycle items including plastic tubs, pots and trays and cartons, as well as batteries and small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Suez says that although it is still too early to see long-term trends, the amount of residual waste collected in Mendip has fallen by roughly 20% during the same five-week period while the tonnage of recycling has jumped 11%

Collections

Comparing the five weeks of Recycle More to the five weeks before it, recycling crews in Mendip collected:

• 302 extra tonnes of recycling in total – up 11%
• 41 extra tonnes of plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays – up 23%
• 105 extra tonnes of cardboard – up 19%
• 141 extra tonnes of food waste – up 15%
• 6.4 tonnes of small electrical items – never collected before
• 1.7 tonnes of batteries – never collected before

Export

And, Suez added that between April and September just 1% of the plastics recycled in Somerset was exported from the UK for reprocessing. Suez was awarded a 10-year contract worth £210 million by SWP to collect waste and recycling from more than 250,000 households across the whole of Somerset in May 2019 (see letsrecycle.com story).

‘Early days’

Mickey Green, managing director of SWP, said: “It’s still early days, but clearly Recycle More has had a big, big impact and will mean thousands of tonnes of extra recycling from Mendip alone over the course of a year.

“Recycle More has had a big, big impact”

Mickey Green, SWP

“This is all down to the way Mendip has embraced the new service and it’s really satisfying to be able to let people know what a difference they are making.

“It’s about taking things out of the bin and getting them recycled, and by doing that playing our part in protecting the environment and tackling climate change.”

Recycle More

The Recycle More service represents the gradual introduction of three-weekly residual collections across Somerset, as well as a separate collection for pots, tubs and trays (PTT), small WEEE and household batteries at the kerbside. Separate collections of plastic bottles and paper and a weekly food waste collection remain.

Mendip is the only part of the county having Recycle More introduced this year. SWP said Recycle More is due in South Somerset at the end of June/early July 2021, and the rest of the county by late February/early March 2022, though dates could be subject to change (see letsrecycle.com story).

James Pike, Suez’s regional director for the south west, said: “Our teams have done an incredible job with the roll-out of Recycle More. As more materials are put out for recycling, they have developed more efficient ways of working despite the challenges posed by Covid-19.

“Our teams at the depot have also adapted well to handling more plastics and new items such as batteries and small electrical appliances. People in Mendip have embraced the new service and I’d like to thank our teams for their hard work to make it happen smoothly.”