Gloucester boosts recycling due to landfill costs

15 January 2010

GLOUCESTER, because it can not afford to send much more waste to landfills, has expanded its recycling collections.

There have been fears that the new system might confuse residents, but citizens have been encouraged to ignore “negative voices”.

From February, households will use a kitchen caddy and an external bin with a lockable lid for food waste. This bin will be collected weekly and wheelie-bin collections will take place fortnightly.

Households will be able to recycle plastic bottles and cardboard in addition to their current recycling.

Council leader Councillor Paul James said: “We have tried to learn from other councils, and where they have introduced two-weekly wheelie-bin collections without introducing food-waste recycling, it has not worked.

“However, where food waste has been introduced there is so little going to landfill, there should not be any problems.”

He added: “We need residents to react to this positively, and we are seeing evidence that they are doing just that.

“We have put a huge amount of effort into promoting this scheme and officers have been out talking to thousands of residents to get them on board with the scheme.

“We need to do this for environmental reasons, and financial reasons as well – we cannot afford to send more waste to landfill.”

Councillor Steve Morgan, the Gloucester council’s cabinet member for the environment, said: “If you look back five years, we were recycling just seven per cent of our waste, now that figure is up to 33 per cent.

“I am sure that, despite a few negative voices regarding the new scheme, the silent majority across the city are willing to embrace it, and I am sure we will reach a rate of over 50 per cent quite easily.”

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