New and improved recycling service – coming to a street near you

Gloucester City Council is set to launch its new and improved 2017 waste and recycling service from January.

Earlier this year, Gloucester City Council asked residents what they would like to change about waste and recycling in the city.

As a result of the public feedback, the new and expanded waste and recycling scheme will mean that residents will soon be able to recycle corrugated cardboard, mixed plastics, textiles and shoes in addition to the current collection of glass, paper, cans, plastic bottles and food.

Gloucester residents who make the most of the new service will minimise the non-recyclable waste left in their black bins and prevent excess waste from being landfilled.

The recyclable materials collected will be sorted into brand new recycling vehicles and will then be sent for onward re-processing into new products.

The city’s residents will soon receive their new collection calendars in the post, and it’s important to check them carefully as some collection routes will be changing, resulting in some properties having a different collection day when the new service starts.

Although collection days could change, recycling and food waste collections will continue to be weekly and garden waste fortnightly as now.

Residents will receive a new blue sack for corrugated cardboard recycling during the first two weeks of January 2017. Crews will place the blue sacks in the green recycling boxes after they have been emptied.

The blue sacks can be used from week commencing 16^th January when the new expanded service starts. Recycling will continue to be collected weekly in the green recycling boxes.

Cllr Richard Cook, cabinet member for environment said, “I’m really pleased that, following the public consultation, we have been able to add the additional materials to our door-to-door recycling collections which residents wanted, and invest in the new recycling vehicles that will make this possible.

“The new improved service is forecast to deliver savings of around £250,000 a year, divert a further 2000 tonnes of waste a year from landfill and move us closer to recycling 50% of all the household waste created in the city within the next 12 months.”

One of the new recycling vehicles will be on display in Gloucester City Centre on Friday 25^th November and Friday 2^nd December in Southgate Street near B & M, between 10am and 5pm and council officers will be present to talk about the new service.

For residents who live in a flat with communal recycling bins, the way that recycling is collected won’t change at the moment, but the collection day could still change.

Once residents have read the information that arrives in the post they may feel that they need more room for their recycling items. If so, an additional green box can be ordered online from the council’s website: https://forms.gloucester.gov.uk/recyclingbox/

Green boxes will need to be ordered by Friday 16^th December 2016 to be received in time for the start of the new service.

Gloucester News Centre – http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk