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Following a very successful trial involving nearly 2,000 households, Guildford Borough Council has introducing a new and innovative recycling and waste collection service across the borough in November of this year. The new service is called "Recycling Works" and residents will receive;
Weekly collections of their purple and green recycling boxes
Weekly collection of food waste
The option of fortnightly collection of garden waste for a small fee and fortnightly collection of things that cannot be recycled or composted, from a wheeled bin
What were the results of the trial?
Latest figures show that one year since the introduction of the Recycling Works trial, residents taking part are recycling a fantastic 64% of all of their rubbish.
In a postal survey 88% of residents on the trial said the scheme was easy and convenient to use and 92% said that they were happy for it to continue.
Why are we introducing the scheme?
Guildford Borough Council is striving to reach a target of 60% recycling and home composting by 2010.
The cost of landfilling our waste is rising substantially every year and so we need to avoid these increasing disposal costs.
One way to reduce climate change and its potentially serious effects on our future is to recycle much more of our rubbish. The council sees the separate collection of food waste as particularly important because when sent to landfill it generates methane and contributes to climate change.
The wheeled bins being supplied for the rubbish that cannot be recycled or composted will help to keep our streets cleaner and reduce the risk of injury from sharp objects to our staff and to our residents.
Our improved service will make reducing, reusing and recycling our rubbish easier for everyone.
Will everyone get a wheeled bin?
No. Some properties are unsuitable for wheeled bins, such as those with steps or steep slopes in the garden, properties with no front garden and no side access to the back garden. Each property has been carefully assessed by our staff and we will issue wheeled bins to every suitable property. Residents in unsuitable properties can continue to use refuse sacks for their non-recyclable rubbish, which will be collected every fortnight.
Our scheme is different
In other parts of the country changing the frequency of rubbish collections has been controversial. This is because rubbish collected fortnightly can mean smells and can attract flies, maggots and rodents. The difference with our scheme is that there will not be food waste in the bins to create these problems. In Guildford all food waste will be collected separately every week.
If the average Guildford resident recycled and composted everything that they could, only 13% of their weekly waste would end up in the wheeled bin for fortnightly collection.
All residents will have received further information about the scheme in August 2009 and kitchen waste recycling containers and wheeled bins were delivered to householders in October. Collections then started across the borough from Monday 2nd November.
For further information please visit www.recycleforguildford.com or contact us on 01483 444499
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