New fleet of trucks to bring better kerbside recycling to Gloucester residents

Gloucester City Council is set to buy 14 new recycling trucks and provide a new doorstep collection service for mixed plastics, textiles and corrugated cardboard.

The council is planning to replace its current fleet of trucks which have reached the end of their life.

The new trucks will deliver an enhanced recycling service for households right across the city because as well as collecting the food waste, newspapers and tin cans which residents leave at the kerbside now, they will also be able to pick up mixed plastics, textiles and corrugated cardboard too.

The items left out for recycling will be sorted at the kerbside and placed into different compartments on the truck as they are collected.

Residents can expect to see the new trucks with the extended service in their area at the beginning of 2017 and the council will be undertaking an extensive communications campaign to make sure that all residents are aware of the new service and the new collection schedule.

Around 56,000 homes will be able to take part and residents will receive a new weather proof sack to place their cardboard into.

Collection times will stay the same. Recycling and food waste will still be collected weekly and refuse will continue to be collected fortnightly. However, in some areas, the day of collection will change and any residents affected will be notified before the end of the year.

Cllr Paul James, leader of Gloucester City Council said, “We’re really pleased to be able to offer an improved doorstep recycling service for our residents. Our 14 new recycling trucks will collect mixed plastics, textiles and corrugated cardboard, as well as the materials we collect currently.

“Back in June we asked residents about the type of items they’d like to recycle and 85% said they wanted to recycle textiles, with 97% saying they’d like to recycle cardboard. Overall, 98% of the people we asked told us that recycling was important or very important to them.”

To save around £300,000 a year, and reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill, the city council aims to increase recycling in Gloucester by five per cent through introduction of the new service.

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