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Fresh drive to up recycling rate
A series of measures to further drive up recycling rates
in Liverpool are set to be introduced over the next 6 months.
The City is on target to recycle a record 33% of its waste in 2016 to 2017; up 10% on
Tax Year, 2015 to 2016, but an analysis carried out by Merseyside Waste Recycling
Authority (MWRA) shows that 21,000 tonnes of recyclable goods are needlessly
going to landfill each year because residents are placing it in their purple bin
or black sacks rather than the blue recycling bin.
The improvements will see the introduction of larger 90 litre reusable sacks to
replace 55 litre recycling boxes for 28,000 terraced homes, following a
successful pilot in County ward which drove up the amount collected by 20%.
Work will also get underway to repair and upgrade the 4 foot alleyways serving
28,000 terraced properties which have broken paving and damaged sewers. In
addition to this, residents will be given better capacity to store and present
their recycling to avoid attracting vermin.
The number of mobile teams tackling flytipping is being doubled from 2 to
4, with more emphasis on finding and fining those responsible, particularly
builders and businesses illegally dumping trade waste.
In addition, there will also be:-
► An expansion of weekly recycling services to cover all 5,500 City
Centre
apartment blocks; increasing the amount of recyclable waste collected by 114
tonnes per year
► A pilot of weekly recycling in some areas with terraced properties
► An education programme in primary schools to promote the importance of
recycling
Councillor Steve Munby, Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said:- "We are
the only big City to be still increasing our recycling rate, but we recognise
that we started from a lower base. One reason for this is the high proportion of
terraced properties in Liverpool, which we know from other Cities always have
lower recycling rates. That's why a big part of our next campaign is to look at
ways of driving up recycling in those streets.
What we are going to be doing over the next year is increasing our recycling
collections where we think it will make a difference, educating people about
which bin to use, improving our response to fly tipping and taking action against
those that dump in our City.
We know there are still large numbers of residents that are putting recyclable
items in their purple bin or are wrongly putting plastic bags in their blue
bins, so we need to do more to clearly explain the do's and don'ts. I get
many complaints from residents living in terraced properties about the condition
of their alleyways which is why we are launching a major improvement drive in
the spring which will see us replacing paving and carrying out other
environmental improvements, as well as giving them better facilities to present
their rubbish."
The City Council is also looking at introducing a kitchen waste collection
service for left over food by creating a local treatment facility that could
also generate electricity and gas.
A report recommending the implementation of the changes will be considered by
the Cabinet, on Friday, 17 February 2017. This report will be
looking at:-
► % of waste recycled in Liverpool (2016/17)
► The 18,000 tonnes of green waste collected (2016/17)
► The 21,000 tonnes of recyclable items wrongly placed in the purple bins,
every year.
► The 28,000 houses who receive a weekly black sack collection.
► The 196,000 houses who are receiving an alternate weekly collection of purple
and blue bins. |
