From April 2003, over 50,000 homes in the district will get fortnightly collections of paper – 94% of the total 53,000 households.
A new Duo collection vehicle, recycling crates and publicity information for the scheme will be funded from part of an award made by DEFRA in the first round of the Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund last year. This saw the council allocated 364,000 to expand paper and green waste collections, and increase rural recycling sites.
Currently, about 27,000 homes have fortnightly paper collections, while 16,000 have monthly collections and 10,000 have no sort of kerbside paper collections at all.
Distribution
The council began distributing recycling crates made by Taylors to households this week, followed by a 20-page recycling guide, list of recycling sites, calendar of recycling dates and stickers for the crates.
The new Duo vehicle will take the council's fleet of vehicles with separate compartments for refuse and paper up to three. But the one additional collection crew needed will be paid for by the council, not the DEFRA grant, letsrecycle.com was told. This will ensure that after initial capital outlay, the council budget can continue to accommodate the scheme's running costs.
Around 2,000 remaining households with no paper collections will be brought into the fortnightly scheme by this autumn, the council said.
Green waste
The council will also expand its Coastal Ploughback green waste collection scheme in April 2003 to 11,000 homes. This scheme began two years ago as a pilot, and currently serves about 4,000 properties.
Next month another 7,000 homes in more urban areas will be added to the collections, which deliver green waste to Viridor for composting.
Suffolk Coastal's current recycling rate is 13%. The government has given it the target of almost doubling this to 24% by 2004.
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