Wednesday 27 June 2012

The cardboard question


Recycle week was last week and we were out and about in the borough, taking on board comments about our changes in collection services, so we'll now start answering some of your Frequently Asked Questions.


From 1st June 2012 cardboard will no longer be accepted in your brown (garden waste) bin. Instead it must be placed in the green wheeled bin or taken to the CRC. This is to improve the quality of our garden waste collections and the compost produced.


In fact we've already seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of garden waste being recycled - no more lurking polystyrene or nappies, cat litters or car parts! It really was amazing what people were sneaking into their garden waste collections, and the cardboard meant it was easily disguised! This meant we had to incinerate (instead of recycling) 600 tonnes of the garden waste collections last year, spoiling it for all those who thought they were doing their bit by recycling. It was really sad.

So... we're hoping to be able to reintroduce a separate cardboard collection from households in the future, but in the meantime we have to ask the really keen recyclers to bring it to our community recycling centres where we can check it's clean and add some to our composting process.

Thank you to all you keen recyclers - let's waste less and recycle more!



There's lots of help and guidance available to help households who are struggling to recycle or to fit their waste in their green wheeled bin, please contact the Waste hotline on 01472 325841 or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . @RubbishGeek and www.facebook.com/letswasteless



Thanks to all those who are already recycling and cutting down on their rubbish! Let's work together to protect the planet and waste less!



2 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm just visiting from Reduce Footprints #MtaGt. It's great that you are posting an explanation of why things are changing - gives people a better understanding of the issues. I compost my own garden waste and include some brown cardboard but leave out the glossy printed stuff (it just doesn't feel right).

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    1. Thanks EcoWarrior - putting a layer of cardboard over the compost heap can keep the heat in, especially if you're using a compost bin which isn't very full yet!

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