According to the draft budged published on Monday (20 December), this is down to the council’s plans to switch to a “hybrid” collection approach in October 2022.
The hybrid collection approach will see investment in new vehicles so that its contractor, Serco, can collect dry recyclables and food waste together every week. This is in order to reduce vehicle movements.
To deliver this model, the council reportedly needs six additional waste vehicles: two to be purchased in 2021/22 and a further four in 2022/23.
The revised budget for 2021/22 see’s £235,000 being spent on waste vehicles, while the first estimate for the 2022/23 budget sits at £395,000.
The council also plans to invest £500,000 on “amendments” to its waste contract in 2022/23.
Serco
Serco has held a contract with Windsor and Maidenhead since 2019, which will see it collect waste for the borough until 2027 (see letsrecycle.com story).
When taking the contract over from Veolia, Serco pledged to introduce hybrid vehicles in order to collect recyclables together and reduce carbon emissions for the borough.
The company also pledged to introduce other changes to collections including kerbside recycling for batteries and small electrical items.
The council also recently moved to a fortnightly residual waste collection in October this year, in order to intensive residents to recycle more.
Priorities
In the document, the council reports that “increasing recycling to 50% of waste by 2025” is one of the “key priorities” for the budget.
The document added that it is also aiming to recycle 65% of waste by 2035, with an overall reduction in waste generated.
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