North Somerset Council’s recycling revolution will move
one step closer next week when new contractors take over the
existing recycling and waste contracts for the area.
From Monday March 1 residents will be able to add aerosols to
their fortnightly green recycling box collections, and new services
including additional staff to help customers recycle as much of
their waste as possible will begin at Household Waste and Recycling
Centres.
Later this year, radical improvements will see the introduction
of weekly recycling collections for all residents, making it easier
for everyone to recycle more materials, more often. As well as
those items already collected, extra materials including plastics,
all types of cardboard, food and drink cartons (often called
Tetrapaks), and household batteries will also be collected using
the council’s green recycling box scheme, when the new services
begin this summer.
Weekly food waste collections will be introduced at the same
time as the revolutionary new household recycling service, and the
popular green garden waste collections will continue every other
week.
Any non-recycling waste left over will be collected every other
week, using a wheeled bin. Residents without space for a wheeled
bin will receive a limited supply of plastic sacks for their
non-recycling waste. Letters notifying residents whether they will
be receiving a wheeled bin or plastic sacks are being sent out
later this month.
The moves are all part of North Somerset Council’s plan to stop
spending so much money on sending waste to landfill. “This year
we’re going to have to spend £4million just to get rid of the
rubbish in North Somerset,” explains Cllr Carl Francis-Pester,
executive member for the environment. “This situation must not
continue – with the ever-increasing costs and government taxes we
have to pay for each tonne of waste we send to landfill, this
figure could easily double by 2016 if we don’t start changing the
way we all deal with our waste.”
Other changes being introduced later on in the year include
alterations to collection days at the start of May so whole towns
in the district have all their recycling and waste collected on the
same day, collections on Bank Holidays, and an earlier start time
of 7am for collections.
For more details on the changes go to
www.n-somerset.gov.uk/revolution
