Colchester borough council confirmed that the collections will restart on 26 April, following the suspension of the previous service in early April last year, due to staff shortages and pressures caused by the pandemic.
Textile collections were carried out by an in-house team in Colchester, and previously were processed by JMP Wilcox, before the service was suspended in April.
The council said that the suspension in the previous service allowed them to “review” the service and “explore other opportunities ”.
It added that the new partnership with Essex Textiles “best matches” the service before the pandemic and demonstrates “good value for money”.
Bags
Essex Textiles will now carry out collections directly from households as part of the new agreement.
Blue textile bags will be rolled out to households before the first week of collections by Essex Textiles in April.
The contractor will then collect the material on a fortnightly basis and transfer the material to its facility in Southend on Sea.
In 2019, it was reported that quality of material, tightening end markets and low participation rates were seeing councils review kerbside textile recycling collections.
As a result of this, JMP Wilcox decided to step back from buying some kerbside collected material due to high levels of contamination (see letsrecycle.com story).
‘Little to no change’
A spokesperson for Colchester borough council said: “Textile collections were paused last year because of the pandemic and to enable the council’s recycling and refuse service to focus its resources, time and capacity on collecting primary materials, such as residual and food waste. It also enabled us to review the textiles service and explore other opportunities.
“Residents should experience little or no change from the pre-pandemic service”
“Residents should experience little or no change from the pre-pandemic service, except for using additional blue bags, which will be collected every other week. Households should look out for a delivery of blue bags in April, before Essex Textiles recommences the service with its own crews.”
Challenging
The council added that it knows suspending the textile collection service has been “challenging” for some households, given the closure of other recycling outlets including charity shops.
During the suspension, the council provided textile bins across the borough in addition to those already supplied by charities.
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