The district is already one of the top recycling areas in the country (see letsrecycle.com league tables), but the council is now launching weekly food and glass waste collections for a trial area of 5,000 homes in Lowestoft, set to begin at the end of this month.
” We want to be at the forefront of waste management and this trial could help us go a long way to helping us achieve our ambition of being number one. “
– Cllr Ken Sale, Waveney DC
The council is already sending 48% of Waveney's waste for recycling, and estimates that food waste alone could boost its recycling rate by around seven percentage points.
Cllr Ken Sale, Waveney's portfolio holder for the built environment, said: “Being one of the top 10 recycling authorities in the country is a temporary position unless you are willing to push it further. We want to be at the forefront of waste management and this trial could help us go a long way to helping us achieve our ambition of being number one.”
Collections
In Waveney, the council already operates alternate weekly collections of residual waste (black wheeled bin) one week and green waste (green bin) and paper, card, metal and plastic (blue bin) the next (see letsrecycle.com story).
Under the year-long trial, properties in the Halesworth and Roman Hill area of Lowestoft, which are excluded from the three-bin system due to a lack of space for bins, will receive leaflets about the service alongside jute bags for glass and a kitchen caddy with cornstarch liners and an outside bin for food waste.
Food waste collected on the trial will be sent for composting at the Bioganix in-vessel facility at Parham, near Ipswich.
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Cllr Sale explained that if the food and garden waste trials were successful, they would be added to or incorporated into existing collections elsewhere.
He said: “We may offer the additional service to other properties or may incorporate kitchen waste into green waste collections, depending on the results of the trial. But we estimate are looking at a recycling rate in the mid to high fifties. I am looking forward to the results.”
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