Data provided by Essex county council shows the overall recycling rate in Tendring for 2019/20 was 36.6%, up from 27.4% the previous year.
New system
The rise in recycling rates follows Tendring district council’s wheeled bin roll out in April 2019, under changes to the waste contract held by Veolia. The changes saw a smaller 180-litre wheeled bin for residual waste rolled out to most homes in the district, replacing the black sacks previously used.
The district council said the new system encouraged residents to separate recyclables from their residual waste, due to the limited space the bins provide.
Under the new system, collections changed from weekly to fortnightly, which the council said further encouraged residents not to fill up the wheeled bins, and to put recycling in the red and green boxes provided.
Black bin bags that are left outside the wheeled bins are not collected by waste crews; however, under the new system, there is no limit to how much recycling is collected.
Before the new system was implemented, there was no limit to how much residual waste could be collected.
Recycling rate
The council said that during the months in which the recycling system has been in place, the recycling rate was 39.8%. In 2018/19 Tendring is reported to have collected 8,509 tonnes of general recycling, which increased this year to 9,198 tonnes.
“Thank you to our residents for their efforts to recycle more and throw away less”
The council also reported that the amount of residual waste being collected per household dropped down by one fifth compared to what they were collecting the previous year. In the year 2018/19, the council said that each household threw away just over half a tonne of residual waste.
The council also saw increases in the use of food caddies and brown green waste bins. The amount of food and garden waste collected rose from last years figure of 5,013 to 7,223 tonnes.
‘Very promising’
Michael Talbot, cabinet member for Environment at Tendering district council, said: “We were confident that our new waste service would deliver improved recycling rates, and it is pleasing to see that the initial data has been borne out in the final figures.
“Thank you to our residents for their efforts to recycle more and throw away less – which helps our environment as a whole.
“The initial figures for more recent months are also very promising, and so I am hopeful that this improvement is a trend which will continue going forward.”
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