Ahead of the launch, the council is currently distributing information to residents through booklets and leaflets to alert them to the service, which will see residents given an orange net sack for mixed plastics such as milk containers, squash bottles, butter tubs, yoghurt pots, and any plastic bottles.
Material is set to be collected by the council's waste contractor Telford & Wrekin Services (TWS) – which is a regional subsidiary of Spanish waste management firm Focsa Services. Collected plastic is then set to be reprocessed by plastics recycling firm Jayplas at its Derby facility.
Councillor Adrian Lawrence, cabinet member for environment and rural area, said that the introduction of the collections exemplified how the council was responding to the need of local residents in the borough.
He said: “This is something our residents have been asking for, and we are very pleased to be able to provide it as an addition to the already successful kerbside collection service.
“It will add to our ability to increase recycling figures for the borough which have steadily increased and are now around 42%. This is thanks to all the local people who have helped our efforts to recycle as much as they can, and with plastics recycling now available, the figures will continue to grow.”
Bring banks
The move to introduce mixed plastics at the kerbside comes as part of a £4.2 million investment into the council's kerbside service announced in December 2009. And, the decision to have mixed plastics comes in response to residents' demand but also due to issues with the council's existing plastic recycling banks.
According to cabinet minutes from September 2009, the existing 61 bring banks across the local authority area had seen take-up “lower than expected”, which had led to an increased cost per unit. In light of this, the council asked TWS to produce a value-for-money alternative.
The waste management firm returned with the idea that removal of the majority of banks and the use of a kerbside collection would be the best option.
However, the contractor said it would need to invest in differently designed vehicles to carry out the service and sought a longer-term waste management deal with the unitary authority to make the investment worthwhile.
The reusable net was chosen as the preferred method for the storage of plastic material, with it anticipated to last three years per household, which the council said would repay the initial investment and overtime prove more cost-effective than disposable bags.
Kerbside
The net system is set to fit alongside the councils existing twin-stream recycling system, which sees glass and paper separated into a box and cardboard torn up or flattened and placed in a blue bag.
An article in the community magazine Insight and themed advertisements in local newspapers will support the campaign and advise residents how best to use the new service and what may or may not be recycled.
More comprehensive information is contained in the booklets to help people make the most of this opportunity to recycle their plastic waste.
Adoption of plastics into its kerbside service comes at a time when campaign groups, such as the Plastics 2020 Challenge, had voiced concern that councils could drop plastics in favour of heavier materials (see letsrecycle.com story).
As an example, Plastics 2020 pointed to East Cambridgeshire district council dropping plastics from its kerbside service in January this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
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