New service prompts surge in recycling

7.52.02pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 23rd Feb 2008

• AN estimated 12,000 more households in the borough are recycling since the launch of the new waste collection service last November.

The huge increase in participation, coupled with the addition of plastic bottle and cardboard collections, has seen the borough's recycling rate rise to 40 per cent compared with 33 per cent at the same time a year ago. The figures were revealed in a recent survey carried out by the Council's waste and recycling advisors. They revisited residents on five of the rounds they had called on just before the new service was launched and found an 18 per cent rise in the percentage of households that were recycling. Across the borough this translates to an estimated 12,000 more households recycling their waste. An extra 68 tonnes of recycling is being picked up each week, equivalent to the weight of eight double-decker buses. To cope with this increased volume, in some areas refuse teams are co-mingling, or putting cans, glass, cardboard and plastic together into one vehicle. They are then taken to a sorting facility and separated. None of these materials are sent to landfill and paper and food waste are still collected separately.

Cllr Martin Elengorn, Cabinet Member for Environment on Richmond Council, said: "These figures are tremendously encouraging. By working closely with residents we are already seeing big gains in the borough's recycling rate and reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill. Before we launched the new service we set an ambitious target of increasing our recycling rate to 40 per cent, a figure which we hit in the month of January.

"Diverting waste from landfill is important in the fight against climate change. As landfill costs and penalties rise, it will also save us money, which can then be spent on priority areas. However, this increase in the volume of recyclable materials left out for collection did initially take us by surprise. To pick up the extra amount in some areas we are using co-mingled collection vehicles. I would like to again reassure residents that all these materials are recycled and not sent to landfill. I am very encouraged to see that more residents are recycling than ever before and would like to thank all those who regularly use the service. However, up to a quarter of households still do not recycle. Our challenge in the months ahead is to engage with those residents who do not use the service and keep working with those who do, to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste wherever possible."