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New Recycling scheme doubles amount collected
Friday 4th April 2008
Extra crews are being drafted in to East Durham following an overwhelming response to a new recycling scheme.
Extra crews are being drafted in to East Durham following an overwhelming response to a new recycling scheme. City of Durham Council and its contractor Greencycle have had to bring in extra vehicles and staff to collect residents' recyclable waste after the service, which collects plastic and cardboard as well as paper, glass and cans, was introduced.During the first few days of the scheme the daily average of household recyclable waste collected doubled, causing delays in completing some rounds.Jeff Riddell the Council's Head of Environment and Leisure Services, said: "There has been a fantastic response to this new recycling scheme, with participation rates at 80 to 90 per cent in many areas. However, this has meant that it is taking a lot more time for the crews to get around, and as a consequence a small number of residents have not had a collection on their assigned day. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, and would ask those residents affected to put it out for collection the next day. We are working with Greencycle to ensure that that over the next few weeks there are enough collection vehicles and crew to meet this very high demand. We urge residents to keep recycling at these tremendous levels and bear with us while we resolve these teething problems." Recycle 2008