Recycling and Waste Service Review "no time to waste"

What was the purpose of the review?

The recycling service has improved and grown considerably over the last five years, resulting in a number of different vehicles passing down each road to collect the borough’s waste and recycling. An extensive review was under taken to investigate ways to improve and streamline these collection services for the long-term.

The review covered:

• The range and volume of materials collected for recycling - i.e. introducing plastic bottles and cardboard;
• The containers provided for residents to store recycling and waste;
• The frequency different materials are collected;
• How materials are collected;
• How the borough’s recycling is re-processed;
• A large consultation exercise gauging feedback from residents on the above points.

Outcomes

On the 15th of January at a Cabinet Meeting the report was approved. The new recycling and refuse collections are described as the most comprehensive in London and are set to be introduced in November 2007. Below is a summary of the key points highlighted in the review.

• To collect plastic bottles and cardboard form kerbside towards the end of 2007.
• To continue weekly collections of refuse (favoured by a small majority of residents in the public consultation)
• To minimise vehicle movement by changing to a "zoning" collection system where recycling and refuse are collected on the same day.
• To plan a comprehensive education and awareness programme.
• To continue to operate a source separated recycling collection.
• To look at implementing mandatory recycling to households at the end of 2007 (supported by over 70% of residents in the public consultation).

Follow this link to see a full copy of the review report (including a summary of the consultation results) which was submitted to cabinet.

Other intersting documents used in the inital reveiw

Below are links to other interesting documents...

• Waste in Richmond upon Thames(pdf, 31KB)
• Waste Reduction & Recycling Strategy(pdf, 16KB)
• Current Service Provision(pdf, 17KB)
• Meeting Community Needs(pdf, 14KB)
• Policies on Waste Reduction and Re-use(pdf, 26KB)
• Waste and Climate Change(pdf, 95KB)