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Council's bid to boost cardboard recycling rates
South Gloucestershire Council - 18th June 2012
South Gloucestershire residents are being urged to help drive up cardboard recycling rates by making sure that they don’t throw cardboard into their green garden waste bins.
The council with its waste and recycling partner SITA UK is launching a new education campaign to encourage residents to put cardboard out separately from other waste. Making sure that cardboard isn’t placed into green bins not only ensures that it can be recycled most effectively, but also helps reduce the cost of processing garden waste.
Measures to keep cardboard out of green bin waste were first introduced in 2010 and since then the amount that is recycled in the district is now more than 4,000 tonnes a year.
And now the council and SITA UK are hoping to increase recycling rates even further with a new initiative beginning 18 June. From this date, green bins will be inspected by collection crews and any found to include cardboard will have a sticker attached explaining what can and can’t be included.
If green bins are still being used for cardboard after two collection cycles – ie. from 16 July -- crews will be unable to empty them and a sticker will be attached to explain why.
Chair of the council’s Communities Committee Claire Young said: “Increasing our recycling rates and reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill is an important priority for the council and it’s very encouraging that with the new collection services our recycling rates have risen to 54 per cent.
“However we know we could be doing more and I hope this education campaign will help us drive up our cardboard recycling rates even further, helping reduce our carbon footprint as a district as well as delivering a more cost-effective service.
“The education campaign was trialled in December last year in Bradley Stoke and went very well, with the stickers leading to a sharp increase in the amount of segregated card recycled. If this is repeated across the district it should deliver very positive results for our overall recycling rates.”
Cardboard can be put out for collection in a variety of ways, including in a cardboard collection bag (available to order free of charge from the council on 01454 868 000), in another container such as a plastic box or stout bag, or collected together in a larger cardboard box.
Residents of flats will be unaffected by the campaign as they generate little or no garden waste. For these homes, the green bins that are provided are used exclusively for cardboard and these arrangements will not change.
Further information on waste and recycling collections are available from www.southglos.gov.uk/recycling or by telephoning the contact centre on 01454 868 000.
Detailed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding cardboard recycling are available from here: http://www.southglos.gov.uk/_Resources/Publications/COS/12/0200/COS-12-0068
* 18-24 June is national Recycling Week. To find out more about events during the week, why not visit www.recyclenow.com/recycle_week/