Richmond has highest recycling rate in south west London (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)
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Richmond has highest recycling rate in south west London
11:46am Tuesday 11th August 2009 in
Residents’ green-fingered credentials have been hailed after the borough achieved its highest ever rate of recycling.
About 42 per cent of borough waste is now recycled - up from 32 per cent in 2006/7 - but Richmond’s environment chiefs have pledged to increase it further.
The borough now has the highest recycling rate in south west London and is in the top four in the capital.
Councillor Geoff Acton, cabinet member for environment, said: “I’m pleased with what is a significant increase in our recycling rate. We are the best in west London and one of the best in the capital.
“This has been a real joint effort between the council and local people who have responded to the new scheme we put in place last year. I would like to thank our residents in particular for their cooperation and support over the last 12 months.
“The benefits of this are significant. If every house can make a meaningful reduction to the waste it produces we stand to save a significant amount of money – money that can be spent on services rather than buried in the ground.”
He said the attention would now turn to reducing how much waste is produced in the first place.
The council is set to launch a drive to encourage residents to recycle their food waste - and put less into their rubbish - and wards where less is collected will be targeted.
Coun Acton added: “We need to keep recycling [and] produce less waste in the first place. The combination to the two will make significant savings and help our environment at the same time.
“Over the coming months we will be providing information on how residents can help and get involved in the councils campaign to reduce waste and save money.”
The waste and recycling collection service has seen a series of changes in the past two years with the introduction of doorstep collection of cardboard and plastic bottles in November 2007 and a simplification of the scheme - with new black and blue boxes - last year.
Recycling chiefs have put the increase down to the new scheme, which introduced zonal collections - collecting everything from an area on the same day - and new vehicles.
Comments(2)
nlait
says...
8:22pm Mon 17 Aug 09
Just a few miles away in Ashford and Sunbury, Spelthorne Council provides a wheelie bin to its residents. One single bin for paper, magazines, cardboard, tins, glass and plastics.
One week the recycling is collected, the next week the small amount of residual waste is collected, and Spelthorne does not, at present, have a food waste collection service.
Spelthorne also provides an opt-in green waste collection service, using wheelie bins, but at £35 per year.
Interestingly, Elmbridge is adopting such a system in October:
a weekly food waste collection service;
an opt-in green waste collection service every fortnight;
and an alternative weekly collection of recycling and residual waste.
Perhaps we should look to our neighbours in Surrey for ideas in further increasing the rate of recycling and keeping residual waste to the bare minimum.
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nlait says...
12:10pm Wed 12 Aug 09
We should not forget the work undertaken by the Waste Advisors and also the crews themselves, especially given the considerable improvement in the service since last November.
The key to increasing the rate of recycling within the Borough is indeed ensuring that as many households as possible use the weekly food waste collection service, as well as recycling their garden waste.
An effective campaign specifically focusing on the recycling of organic waste (food waste and garden waste), as well as a reminder of the collection of dry recyclables, will hopefully lead to residents generating a very small amount of residual waste.
In doing so, significant savings should be possible.
I hope that in the fullness of time, Richmond will adopt a similar strategy to the leading London Boroughs of Bexley and Harrow, and will watch with interest the new system being introduced later this year by our neighbours in Elmbridge.