Council to Introduce Weekly Recycling
At Wednesday 4th November’s meeting of South Gloucestershire Council’s Communities committee plans will be discussed and hopefully approved for the new Waste Strategy to go to public consultation.
The strategy aims to improve recycling rates whilst still delivering the ambitious savings target of £2.73m to be achieved between 2014 and 2020 and was endorsed on a cross-party basis in the Council Savings Plan (CSP) discussions prior to the election.
The options being consulted on include introducing weekly recycling collection from the doorstep. They also include getting rid of the unpopular bags for collection, which tend to blow away with the wind, with more practical plastic boxes.
Another provision in the new strategy is to bring the landfill bin service in line with neighbours in the region by reducing the size of the black landfill bin from 240L to 140L.
Speaking of the changes, Communities Committee Chair Cllr Heather Goddard commented:
“We have a 2020 target to recycle at least half of all our waste. As an area South Gloucestershire produces a remarkably high amount of waste compared to our neighbours, spending over £4.5m on black bin waste alone. As such, we need to be imaginative and bold as a Council to deliver this.”
“We are pleased to be able to offer a new weekly recycling service from the doorstep. This should make life easier and more convenient for our residents. With this new service in place, and with many residents already struggling to fill their black landfill bins on a two-weekly cycle, we will be adjusting bin sizes accordingly. Our neighbours in Bristol and North Somerset already successfully use much smaller bins than we currently do.”
“This new strategy allows us to deliver on our ambitious recycling targets, achieve our savings targets and still improve services for local people. We are proud to say that with creative thinking we don’t need to choose between caring for our environment, providing good quality public services and being financially responsible. You can do all three.”