'Recycle for Dorset’ begins on Monday
Picture credit: Bournemouth Echo
Residents in Christchurch, Dorset, will be the first to use the new ’recycle for Dorset’ service, when it launches on Monday (1 October).
Billed as the ‘biggest change’ ever to Dorset’s recycling service, ‘recycle for Dorset’, provided by the Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP), will replace the 12 current collection services and is expected to save the seven councils in the partnership £2 million a year. It is also hoped to increase Dorset’s recycling rate from 50 per cent to 65 per cent by 2015.
Steve Burdis, Director of the DWP, said: “This is the biggest ever change to waste collections in Dorset and follows months of preparations and communications with residents.
“The development of a shared service stems from the Joint Waste Strategy adopted by all Dorset councils in 2009 following extensive public consultation.
“We are excited by the changes this new service will bring and hope residents will feel the same way. We fully appreciate the part that every resident plays by using the service.”
Burdis went on to urge residents to be patient and leave their recycling and waste bins out until the end of the day as “rounds may take a little longer to complete while the service settles into its stride”.
Comprehensive recycling
All Christchurch householders received new recycling containers for the service in August, along with an information pack including a user guide and collection calendar.
Under ‘recycle for Dorset’, residents will be able to recycle plastic pots, tubs and trays with plastic bottles, paper and cardboard, tins and cans and aerosols using their new 240-litre wheelie bin and glass bottles and jars using their new green box. Residual rubbish will be collected fortnightly from their 140-litre wheelie bins.
A new weekly food waste collection will also begin, with the majority of food waste being sent for composting at Eco Sustainable Solutions in Christchurch, Dorset, with a proportion being sent to Eco Sustainable Solutions’ new anaerobic digestion plant in Piddlehinton, West Dorset, in the future.
Residents wishing to compost their food waste at home, can buy a reduced price home compost bin from the council until the end of 2012.
People in the first rollout area can also subscribe to a fortnightly garden waste collection using a 240-litre wheelie bin for £35 a year, or a 120-litre reusable bag for £25 a year.
New collection rules
Before the new service commences on Monday, residents have been reminded to:
- Double check collection calendar as collection days may have changed;
- Leave containers at the kerbside (rather than the backdoor, as previous) the evening before collection or by 7am on collection day;
- Put out food waste every week, and recycling/rubbish on alternating weeks;
- Put all rubbish inside relevant bins as anything left beside bins won’t be collected;
- Lock larger food bin by moving the handle forwards;
- Put glass bottles and jars in green box;
- Allow until the end of the day for collection as there may be small delays as new service begins.
Councillor Hilary Cox, Chair of the DWP Joint Committee, encouraged residents to “make the most” of the new service, saying: “Councils in Dorset have joined forces to cut costs and keep tonnes of valuable resources out of expensive and environmentally harmful landfill.
“We want to see Dorset at the top of the recycling table but we know we can’t achieve our aims without the support of our residents. I would like to encourage all residents to make the most of their new service and thank everyone for doing their bit to recycle for Dorset.”
Two new Dennis Eagle recycling vehicles will come into use at the end of October to manage the service: a ‘dual-stream’ vehicle, which will collect rubbish at the rear of the vehicle and food waste in a pod at the side; and a ‘tri-stream’, vehicle, which will collect mixed recycling and glass in two separate compartments at the rear and food waste in a pod at the side.
Container deliveries will now begin in parts of East Dorset including Ferndown, St Leonards and St Ives, Three Legged Cross, Wimborne and Verwood, where the new service will start on 29 October.
The rest of East Dorset and North Dorset will start using the new service in the first half of 2013, followed by Purbeck, West Dorset and Weymouth and Portland in 2014/15.
Read further information on the ‘recycle for Dorset’ service.