Following tonight’s Cabinet decision to approve proposals to make changes to waste collection on the Island, this in from the council. Ed
Changes to waste collections that will increase recycling, reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and also help save money have been approved by councillors on the Isle of Wight.
The Isle of Wight Council’s cabinet tonight (Tuesday) approved the new arrangements that will make it easier for residents to recycle.
Weekly food collections remain
Under the plans, weekly food collections will remain but residents will be asked to place more of their waste into the fortnightly collections of recyclables. Wastes that can be recycled will be expanded to include glass bottles and jars, paper, cardboard, plastics, tetra packs and metals. Wheelie bins for recyclable waste will be provided by the council.
The steps will help the council drive up recycling rates and reduce the amount sent to landfill which will benefit the environment. In doing so, the council also stands to save a million pounds in landfill tax and other penalties – savings that will reduce pressure in other service areas.
Decision follows consultation
The decision by cabinet follows a recent consultation carried out by the authority in which 95% of people said it was important for the council to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill to protect the environment and save money. Some 92% said that it was important or very important to collect more types of waste for recycling while around two thirds said they would support the council in changing the waste collection service.
A similar amount agreed the proposed new service would make it easier for residents to recycle their waste.
Help drive up recycling
After the cabinet meeting, Cllr Edward Giles, IW Council cabinet member responsible for waste collections said: “The new arrangements will help drive up recycling and drive down landfill. All in all it means the council will be able to save a million pounds that would otherwise have to pay for landfill tax and other penalties.
“The response to the consultation was heartening in many respects. There was a clear message that residents believed we should do more to help them recycle and these proposals do that in a sensible way. Not only does the new system avoid the need for numerous receptacles, the proposals also retain the weekly collections of food waste.
“It is an approach that has recently been backed by the Friends of the Earth and is also in tune with Government thinking on waste collections. In fact many of the public comments said the move was long overdue as many other authorities already had much higher recycling rates as a result of similar arrangements.”
Cabinet decided unanimously to introduce the new collections from February next year. Prior to the switch, the council will launch an information campaign to explain the details of the new arrangements.
The details on the proposals can be viewed via the website
Image: Andy Arthur under CC BY 2.0
