Andy Conn (Head of Waste Management) gave a
presentation on the new Waste Collection Service which was designed
to give all Wiltshire residents access to the same opportunities
for recycling, and to keep landfill to a minimum.
In the Marlborough Community
Area, the main impact of the new service would be as
follows:
·
New plastic and cardboard collection - Residents in
the Marlborough Community Area, and other eastern Community Areas,
would receive new blue lidded wheelie bins for cardboard and
plastic bottles; these would be delivered in November 2011, with
the service beginning from 28 November.
- Free,
optional, fortnightly garden waste collection – This new
service would come into effect from Spring 2012, with bins being delivered in February
2012. Residents wishing to register to
receive a garden waste bin (and who did
not already have one) had until 30 September to do so, to guarantee
delivery of a bin before the commencement of the new
service. This could be done via the
leaflets available, over the phone or online via the following
link:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/rubbishrecycling/gardenbin.htm.
Those residents who currently paid for the service would not have
to do anything. The payments would
cease from December 2011.
Any questions on the new
service could be directed towards the following telephone number
0300 456 0102
The Chairman thanked Andy for
the presentation and invited questions and comments:
·
In response to a question, Andy confirmed that the
recyclable plastics were types 1, 2 and 3. Nearly all plastic bottles were 1, 2 or 3, but
only some pots and packaging. As such,
for simplicity and for ease of checking by the crews, only bottles
would be accepted in the blue-lidded bins. However, at the
Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) all types 1, 2 and 3
plastics would be accepted (i.e. bottles and other
shapes). This was because the crews
were able to spend time checking and advising customers.
- In
reply to a question regarding the need to invest in automatic
sorting equipment, Andy advised that a significant level of
investment had been put into this area under the existing contract
with Hills which ran from 1996 to 2016.
The tendering process for the new contract would begin around 2013
and it was anticipated that investment in separating equipment
would form part of the new contract.
Councillor Toby Sturgis added that the blue lidded bins were of a
larger size to allow more flexibility in terms of recyclable
materials in the future.
- It was
suggested that there remained a perception amongst some residents
that as the materials were all mixed up within the boxes, they were
just dumped. Andy replied that this was
not the case, and that the crews separated the materials on
collection. This was then checked at
the depot, giving an extremely low contamination rate of less than
1%.
- In
terms of “side waste” (i.e. excess waste, left at the
side of bins for collection) it was advised that the old District
Councils had different policies on this, which were slowly being
harmonised into a county-wide approach.
Side waste was not really suitable for the new lorries, which used bin lifts to collect the
waste. As such it was preferable for
all waste to be in the wheelie bin, with the lid shut. However, this policy would be enforced in a
reasonable and realistic way, with education being the key theme,
and stickers on bins being used to advise residents.
- Councillor Toby Sturgis referred to a written question which had
been received in relation to collection of waste from Parish-run
village playgrounds. He undertook to
look into the issue, as the impact seemed to vary between
parishes.
ACTION: Councillor Toby Sturgis