WRG has increased recycling rates within just six months of it winning the contract in April this year, boosting recycling and recovery rates by more than 19% from last year’s figure of 45% for the same period. WRG hopes to increase recycling rates to 50% during the second year of its contract.
WRG claimed that recycling rates have increased due to a recent refurbishment of the sites, which has included the provision of new waste bins, oil banks and paper banks and improved direction signage and access walkways for members of the public.
Collectively, the sites handle approximately 25,000 tonnes of waste a year with a wide range of materials being segregated for re-use and recycling, including glass, paper, timber, green garden waste, engine oil, car batteries and cardboard. After the refurbishment, WRG said that the amount of waste occurring from the CA site now being landfilled has nearly halved from its anticipated figure of 9,300 tonnes for the six month period to 4,709 tonnes in 2002.
Ed Bastow, managing director of Waste Recycling’s South Eastern Division said he was pleased with the progress the Group is making towards increasing recycling rates. He said: “Under the contract, we were set a challenging target of achieving a minimum 50% recycling rate at all of the sites during the second year of the contract.
“While we expect the recycling rate to fall slightly in the coming winter period, the first few months of our contract have shown that we are on our way to achieving the target we have been set. We are committed to assisting Norfolk County Council in meeting their commitments to increase recycling rates and improve sustainability across the County.”
Materials collected at local public household waste recycling centres such as paper, wood and green garden waste – together with glass that has been collected in bottles banks across the region is delivered to WRG’s Thetford site to for bulking up and composting.
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