Recycling options for a greener Slough
Slough Borough Council will be consulting with residents on plans to improve domestic waste and recycling collections.
In May 2007, the government announced that all local authorities have to recycle 40 per cent of their waste by 2010. The current black box scheme has helped to increase Slough’s household recycling to 22 per cent, but staying with this existing system will not improve recycling rates any further. It also doesn’t allow for the recycling of plastic bottles.
The Slough council’s cabinet have made a commitment to residents that they will not look at options which include alternative weekly collections of residual waste (i.e waste that needs to go to landfill), and that this will continue to be collected weekly.
Slough Residents will be asked to consider:
* How important the kerbside collection of plastic bottles is
* Whether they would prefer for a wheelie bin for recycled materials (including plastic bottles) and for this to be collected every fortnight
* Whether they have room at their home for an extra wheelie bin for recycling
* Whether they would be prepared to separate additional materials for recycling in the future (for example, food waste and textiles)
* To have your say, pick up the October edition of Citizen, fill in the questionnaire and return freepost to the council, or log onto cleaner, safer, greener Slough after Monday 8 October.
The council’s cleaner, safer, greener team will also be out and about in the town talk to residents about the future recycling options.
Cllr John Edwards, commissioner for Slough public protection, said: “The environment is a priority for the council and one of the things residents are always telling me is that they are keen to recycle more waste.
“We have been very pleased with the amount of people who have taken up recycling since the introduction of the black box recycling scheme, and have seen increases in recycling rates year on year.
“Recycling is a vital part of the effort to conserve energy and resources and fight climate change, and we need to improve our recycling scheme to help with this. We also need to target those residents who, for whatever reasons, don’t recycle, and encourage them to start doing so.
“The cleaner, safer, greener campaign is helping to educate residents about the benefits of recycling and being greener to help the environment, and we have recently had a team out and about visiting residents and explaining how to recycle waste properly.”
Nigel Dicker, head of Slough environmental services, said: “This consultation will be about finding out about what residents would prefer see in their recycling collections in the future.
“The aim is to make recycling as easy and hassle free as possible, so we can improve on our recycling targets, so it is vital that residents come back to us with their views.”
Slough Borough Council