Witney News - More trucks for West Oxfordshire’s recyclers

More trucks for West Oxfordshire’s recyclers

Three more recycling trucks will be joining West Oxfordshire’s waste collection fleet as recycling rates continue to rise across the district.

The new vehicles will be on the road at the end of July and will help the waste and recycling collection service we offer to residents. In the meantime, additional trucks have been hired-in temporarily to help with collections. These hire-vehicles are a different type to those normally used by the council as they will be collecting all recycling together in one compartment at the back of the truck. It will then be sent to a sorting centre before going on to a re-processor.

With West Oxfordshire’s normal recycling trucks, materials are sorted by crews at the kerbside into separate compartments on the side of the truck. Because of this they do not need to go to a sorting centre, but are baled and sold on directly to a re-processor.

The Council has chosen the kerbside sorting system because it results in much better quality materials being collected, for which there is a higher demand from re-processors and more income is generated.

Cllr David Harvey, West Oxfordshire District Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “We have had a superb response to our new service and had not expected such high recycling rates so soon. It is a massive thank you to all our residents. Although the new trucks are an additional cost for our contractor, it is a small investment compared with income generated by higher recycling rates and less being spent on hefty landfill charges.”

Craig Cutajar, Contracts Manager for May Gurney, the Council’s waste and recycling contractor, said: “West Oxfordshire residents are keen recyclers and we’re very pleased to be delivering a service which allows them to recycle more. The additional trucks will help us to complete our rounds sooner.”

Recycling has increased significantly month-on-month since the district council introduced a new waste and recycling service at the end of November 2010, with latest whole-month figures showing that 67% of waste was diverted from landfill. West Oxfordshire’s recycling rate stood at 34% before the service was launched.

The new service gives residents more opportunities to recycle and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. In addition to the long-term environmental benefits, it will also save the Council over £500,000 a year, which will help it to keep Council Tax bills low for residents.

Residents can find out more about waste and recycling collections online at www.westoxon.gov.uk/waste or by calling 01993 861025.