Fortnightly bin collections for Tewkesbury Borough Council
Fortnightly rubbish collections will be introduced to Tewkesbury, Winchcombe and Bishop’s Cleeve as part of a waste shake-up.
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s new refuse scheme will begin on April 12 when general refuse collections will become fortnightly, in an effort to increase the amount of waste that it recycles.
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Jim Mason and Julie Davies
It will begin fortnightly kerbside collections of cardboard and of plastic bottles – to add to the cans, newspapers and glass it already collects.
Richard Kirk, who is interim corporate head of environment and waste management on the council, said: “It’s going to be one of the biggest changes this council has ever seen.
“We want to get people to think about what they buy and the packaging that it has.
“They tend to put things into the bins and forget about them. This will make them think about it more and realise that they’re responsible for it.”
Households will be given a new blue recycling wheelie bin to create space for the extra items, replacing the green recycling boxes.
Food waste will be collected for the first time, with households being given two green caddies. A small one will be to keep in the kitchen and a larger one will be to put out for once-a-week kerbside collection.
The council says the scraps will be turned into compost which will be used on local farms.
Councillor Jim Mason, the council’s lead member for clean and green environment, said: “We’re giving the public what they wanted. They wanted to be able to recycle more on their doorstep.”
The authority will post a leaflet about the changes to the borough’s 35,872 households on Monday.
Details will also be available on-line, at www.tewkesbury.gov.uk/recycling and a helpline, 01684 272 279, will operate from Monday.
From March 1, the blue bin will be delivered to households, with the green caddies inside.
The council is concerned some people may worry their general rubbish bin will fill up before they are collected fortnightly.
But its says putting food, cardboard and plastic bottles into the other containers will create space and help it send less waste to landfill.
It wants to increase the amount of waste that it recycles, from 33 per cent now to 60 per cent by 2020.
The council will no longer collect rubbish left to the side or on top of bins and all but five of its public recycling banks will be removed. These are at Spring Gardens and Morrisons in Tewkesbury, Tesco in Bishop’s Cleeve, Back Lane car park in Winchcombe, and the parish council offices in Churchdown.
A small percentage of residents will have their collection day changed.
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by KL, Tewkesbury
Friday, February 26 2010, 6:05PM
“This is getting way too complicated for elderly people, even for able ones, let alone the more frail!....and as usual, they are not considered. I for one am going to get very angry if the elderly are not catered for. We will ALL get there, sometime, and maybe only then you realise what I am alking about! - A carer!”
by Wahay!, Gloucester
Wednesday, February 10 2010, 1:36PM
“Good news! Let's all recycle as much as possible create a greener and shinyer world! Yippee!”
by read it properly!, Tewks
Friday, February 05 2010, 8:28AM
“I think everyone needs to read this article properly! We will be getting a leaflet through our door next week, and i've already read about this in the council's paper tha's delivered.
As for replacing anything with a brown bin - where did that come from?
We've ALL got to start recycling more, I for one am very pleased they will be collecting our food waste weekly - it should make everyone happier to know it's being turned into compost and not LANDFILL.
Why can't our borough deal with change? It's ridiculous.”
by helen, glos
Friday, February 05 2010, 12:13AM
“This is my comment when this article was on the Tewkesbury page before the whole lot was taken off, bearing in mind this should have gone out to public consultation
*of course its a step in the right direction and as neighbouring districts are collecting items such as yoghurt pots I look forward to the fine tuning. However reading it in detail and looking around on bin days there are households for whatever reason consistently leaving out much more than a bin full together with 3 + recycling boxes. This is far more than the quantity of waste allowed in April. I see that common sense has prevailed and that some bring to sites will be retained for a short period then what. Will there be fines levied for those that can't close their bin, or pavement recycling on the go introduced? Bearing in mind that for many residents household recycling sites are impossible to get to, what provision will be made, after all its a back door approach to last years recommendations and for a clean and green approach unworkable in many other authorities.”
by Abbeydale resident, Abbeydale
Thursday, February 04 2010, 7:41PM
“If the Churchdown resident uses the recycling boxes properly then the fortnightly collection will work. This new service was advertised enough so there was no excuse not to see it and be left with a full bin. Were you not curious to know what the brown bin was for when it was delivered?”