Grey’s the new green – as recycling rates double

Jul 13 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

THE first full month of recycling across Wirral has seen the borough’s rates more than double.

Since November, Wirral Council has been rolling out the new grey bin recycling service to 140,000 homes across the borough and the final phase was completed last month.

Early indications are that the new scheme is proving successful, with high participation from residents resulting in a dramatic increase in Wirral’s recycling figures, according to the cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Gill Gardiner.

She said: “Before the introduc-tion of the new scheme, Wirral was averaging a recycling rate for dry recyclates of just below 7%, one of the worst in the country.”

After the introduction of the first phase of the scheme last November to 24,500 properties this rate increased to just over 10%.

The second phase of the scheme saw another stepped and sustained improvement, and in May the authority recorded a figure of just over 14% for dry recyclates.

Cllr Gardiner said: “And, when we add our projected figure for dry recyclates to our improved garden waste composted figures, early indications are that we will not only achieve our combined target for 2007/8 of 23%, but we are set to exceed it.

“Indeed, our June recycling and compost figure is showing that we have a combined recycling and compost rate of 26.88%”

“The response and enthusiasm from residents for recycling has been fantastic, and I’m optimistic that before long Wirral will have the best recycling record in Merseyside, but it doesn’t stop there.”

The council is now planning a campaign to encourage home composting and says Tetrapak collection sites are being introduced at seven sites across the borough.

Cllr Gardiner added: “This is all good news for the environment and our pockets; Gordon Brown recently announced that landfill tax charges were to go up £8 per tonne per year, as opposed to the previous £3 per year. The more waste we can divert from landfill the more money we can save in landfill charges.”

WIRRAL Council’s call centre has also seen improvements recently, after the Daily Post revealed that thousands of calls were being left unanswered.

The number of calls answered have gone up from 72% to 98%, despite the call centre receiving a high volume of calls made even worse due to recent flooding problems.

liammurphy