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Big change to Berrylands' rubbish collection
Berrylands' black bin-bags will be collected fortnightly in a pilot scheme aimed at reducing waste.
A longer list of recyclables, including cardboard, plastic bottles and kitchen and organic waste, will be collected from 2,500 local homes weekly from November 6, a change the administration hopes to roll-out across Kingston in 2008.
From the same day the whole borough will get new collection days and recycled material and rubbish will be picked up on the same day, a change which has saved £250,000 and funded the pilot.
Berrylands residents are cautious about the changes, preferring instead a scheme like Wandsworth's where waste and recyclables are both collected weekly, but the council believes the change, while difficult at first, could make Kingston one of the highest performing authorities in the country.
One resident Michael Donovan said: "We recycle a fair bit already and the problem with the rubbish is that there is a nasty smelly amount which is about five per cent. The other 95 per cent is packaging. We compost ourselves and produce two or three bags a week but we cold probably cope if they take the kitchen waste too."
| "It’s about getting residents to change how they operate - we cannot keep the status quo where people think things go in the black bin bags and disappear, it’s environmentally unsound and potentially financially crippling for this council and every council in England.” | | Rob Dickson |
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Leader of the council Councillor Derek Osbourne said: "What people cannot currently compost, things like meat and leftover meat products can now be collected.
"The residual waste, which should in the average household largely be only plastics already recycled, non-bottles and not terribly biodegradable nappies, will be picked up fortnightly."
The council will provide solid containers for different types of waste - Berrylands residents will get a green box, an additional box, a closed container for kitchen waste and a wheelie bin for rubbish. People with large families will get larger wheelie bins to deal with extra waste.
Coun Osbourne added: "We have done huge amounts of research in terms of what other boroughs are doing and where it has been successful. We think we have brought up a deal tried and tested elsewhere that works and will be good for residents."
It is hoped the changes will help Kingston towards a 50 per cent recycling rate, compared to just over 20 per cent now.
Head of waste management Rob Dickson said: "It's about getting residents to change how they operate - we cannot keep the status quo where people think things go in the black bin bags and disappear, it's environmentally unsound and potentially financially crippling for this council and every council in England."
A poster campaign, coupled with advertising in the press and on the radio, will inform residents of all the changes coming up in November. The council wants to start a working party to get people's opinions of the pilot and has even offered to visit people's homes to go through their bins and show them what can be recycled.
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3:27pm Tuesday 26th September 2006
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