The contractor took over the running of the collection service in the town from Cory in late 2015, following a successful tender process in which it also saw off competition from Serco, Urbaser, Amey, Biffa and SITA UK (now Suez) to secure the deal (see letsrecycle.com story).
Changes to the way that waste collections are carried out in the borough are being phased in this month, targeted at financial savings, as well as improving the quality of the recyclable materials collected from householders.
These include switching from a five to a four-day collection rota, while residents are also taking delivery of blue recycling boxes, which will be used to separate paper and card from other dry recyclables.
Until now residents have had a weekly collection of commingled dry recyclables including paper, card, cans, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays and glass from the kerbside using pink sacks, as well as a weekly collection of food waste using blue wheeled bins and a black sack collection of residual waste. Clear sacks can also be provided for the collection of clean and dry textiles.
Split-body
The changes to the system will see the collection of other materials remain the same, but the council will be introducing split body vehicles on recycling routes with separate compartments for paper and card and other dry recyclables.
According to the council, the new collection arrangement will improve the quality of material collected. In a statement, it said: “Collecting separately at source also means that it can be kept isolated from other potential contamination and will be efficiently processed.
“The new blue paper and recycling box supplied to residents also provides increased capacity to store and present recycling and mean less pink recycling sacks need to be used. The separately collected paper and card will be a much better quality and this ensures it can be turned into a wider range of recycled products.”
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