The council said this week that it has hit a 53% recycling rate in 2018/19, up from 48.5% in the previous year and an improvement of nearly 10% compared to 2015/16.
Wigan council attributed this rise to its decision in 2017 to move to a three weekly residual collection service as part of efforts to save £2 million from the cost of the service (see letsrecycle.com story).
The authority previously collected residual waste fortnightly, alongside a brown bin collection for plastic, glass and metal cans, a fortnightly green bin collection for organic waste, and a blue bin collection service for paper and card, carried out every four weeks.
Under the 2017 changes, green bin collections remained on a fortnightly cycle, whilst the other containers are collected on a three-weekly rotation.
MRF
The council, which serves around 325,000 residents, has its recycling collected by an in-house team, which is sent to FCC’s Ferrybridge MRF (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the statistics, councillor Carl Sweeney, Wigan council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “The council introduced three weekly bin collections in 2017 to increase recycling which helps reduce the amount of waste going into landfill which is good for our environment.
“As a result of residents doing their bit, we have surpassed this target. I would like to thank local people for their continued support with recycling and for doing what they can to help our environment. “Recycling more and recycling right helps us to keep council tax low and invest money in frontline services.”
“Recycling more and recycling right helps us to keep council tax low and invest money in frontline services.”
In addition, the council added that it had also announced plans earlier this month to be litter free by 2030 and revealed proposals for an innovative and targeted litter strategy aimed at making the borough “cleaner, greener and more sustainable”.
Cllr Sweeney added: “We want to change the culture towards litter, too often we have to be reactive when it comes to waste removal, this strategy aims to change this and focus more on preventative action to help reduce litter and fly-tipping happening in the future.”
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