It’s all change for West Devon waste collection

I expect, like me, you’ve just received a leaflet from West Devon Council explaining the new waste collection system – and mighty complicated it seems.

And at first glance, it appears that there will only be one collection a fortnight – but closer examination shows that recycled waste (with more items eligible) and food waste will be taken each week, and only what’s left collected every two weeks.

Here’s the Council’s take on it…

For the first time, householders will be able to recycle all plastic bottles in their green boxes which will be collected weekly at the kerbside. Other materials that can also now go into the green boxes include textiles, batteries, mobile phones and spectacles. Over the next few weeks new containers for recycling will be delivered to all households along with information explaining exactly when and how the changes will work.

Also, for the first time, all householders will be able to benefit from the food waste collection service which is currently only available to parts of the borough. The food waste, which locally generates electricity for the national grid and produces compost for local farms, will be collected weekly at the kerbside along with the green boxes. Again, extra food waste containers are being delivered to areas who have previously not received the service.

Garden recycling bags are also being delivered to households who are new to the service. The bags, in which you can also recycle bulky card board, will be collected every other week. The garden waste and bulky card is recycled on farms locally.

With the improvements in recycling collections, households will see a drop in non-recyclable waste, and rubbish sacks will be collected every other week alternating with the garden waste collections.

The new scheme starts in the North of the borough from September 27. In the South of the borough the new service will start on October 18.

The new service will bring significant environmental benefits reducing the amount of waste going into costly and scarce landfill by more than 1000 tonnes per year. Currently borough households recycle around 43% of their waste.  This is set to rise to at least 54% in the near future.

The new system should increase recycling by at least 10%. It will also mean fewer collection lorries travelling across the borough saving thousands of gallons of fuel and reducing our carbon footprint.

Cllr Robert Sampson, Chairman of the Borough Council’s Environment and Community Committee said: “We are regularly asked by our householders to improve the amount of materials that can be recycled – particularly plastics – and we strongly believe that this new service fits the bill. The new service allows for the majority of waste generated from the household to be collected weekly and recycled.“

A feather in the cap for the Council? Or a lot of extra work for householders without much gain? What do you think?