Carlisle Council Improved Recycling Service

Carlisle Council Set to Improve Recycling Service

Surveys on recycling have revealed that around 30% of the people questioned remain confused about what they can recycle, despite numerous campaigns designed to better inform people.

A survey of 2000 people carried out by Recycle Now asked people what they find easy to recycle and what they don’t realise they can recycle. 9 out of 10 people reported that they regularly recycle kitchen waste, but only half of people recycle bathroom products.

The main items that people admitted to throwing away instead of recycling are cardboard toilet roll tubes, shampoo and shower gel bottles, aerosols, and cleaning product containers.

It’s important that you think before you throw, to save resources, and to reduce waste going to landfill, which is ultimately bad news for the environment. To put it in perspective, if 1 aerosol can was recycled per person in the UK, it would save enough energy to vacuum over 876,000 homes for a year!

The issue of electronic waste

The advancement of technology these days means that many of us buy gadgets and devices only for them to be considered out of date within a year. This leaves us with a lot of unwanted devices which are left in drawers or garages, or that are disposed of incorrectly. EU figures suggest that only a third of electronic waste is disposed of correctly.

Regulations which impose a duty on retailers and manufacturers to accept unwanted items back, and mobile phone recycling schemes have helped the situation to an extent, but there is still much to do.

Improved recycling service in Carlisle

Carlisle city council is set to introduce its ‘new and improved’ refuse and recycling service this summer. The kerbside recycling service will be extended to more households, and the council has asked residents to look at how they sort their recycling, and to change it for the better to reduce waste being sent to landfill.

Helping residents to recycle more

The new service will involve most residents having their rubbish collected on the same day each week, which will reduce confusion about what they are supposed to put out and when. Residents currently have a green bag and a green box, which will be combined into one collection.

Every other week, there will be a collection to ‘reduce clutter’. Normal waste and garden waste will be collected one week, and recycling waste will be collected in the following week.

A more comprehensive service

The council insisted that they needed to change the service and said that it is not acceptable that currently, 1200 properties with gardens do not have access to garden waste collections, 6000 do not have access to plastic and card waste collections, and 3000 households do not have access to a green recycling box, all of which means more waste being thrown away and ending up in landfill.

The council said they want as many residents as possible to have access to a kerbside recycling collection service.

Changes to collection vehicles

To help with the introduction of the new service, the council has invested in 4 new collection vehicles, which will replace older vehicles and provide improved access in some residential areas which are difficult to access.

Sustainable recycling methods

The council have taken steps to make recycling even more efficient and sustainable.

Collected plastic is sent to a reprocessor and is recycled into new products, such as watering cans and garden furniture.

Paper is sent for reprocessing into new paper products, glass is sent to Scotland to be turned into new bottles and jars, and garden waste is sent to a composting site, and then sold to DIY stores.

The council has also organised some ‘recycling roadshows’ which are designed to inform residents about recycling and the changes to services.