Council thanks public for embracing new recycling scheme

Swindon Borough Council has praised residents for supporting new changes to the waste and recycling service

People in Swindon have been thanked by the council for helping the town increase its recycling rate by putting out 85 tonnes of food waste for collection last week.

In the biggest change in waste and recycling services in Swindon for 15 years, tens of thousands of residents put out food waste for collection for the first time.

The food waste picked up by council crews will now be recycled into fertiliser for crops or electricity to power homes.

The waste and recycling teams completed more than 99,000 collections in the first week of the new service (over 99 per cent) with only a relatively small number of missed collections as staff navigated new routes.

Heading into week two of the new service, the council has reminded residents that:

- Plastic recycling placed in a single use, plastic bag, cannot be collected. Currently crews are having to split the bags by hand as they can no longer be processed.

Any residents who haven’t had their bagged plastic collected should take it out of the plastic bag and place it loose into their weighted reusable blue bag or another sturdy container

- The Council still cannot recycle flexible plastics. Flexible plastics are ones that can be scrunched by hand, for example single use plastic bags, bags used for salads/veg, crisp packets and clingflim.

Residents are asked to place these in their general waste or take it to a local supermarket for recycling.

Anyone who is unsure if something can be recycled, can search for it by using the Waste Wizard on the Council’s website.

Cllr Chris Watts, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment and Transport, said: “We’d like to say a huge thanks to local residents for really getting behind the new waste and recycling service changes so far.

“It is the biggest change to our waste service in 15 years and residents have really helped us get off to a good start.

“Our crews have been collecting waste from around 20,000 properties each day and more than 99 per cent of households have had their waste collected, which is a tremendous effort from our staff, who are having to navigate new routes and a new way of collecting waste.

“We always knew there would be some teething issues along the way, so please report a missed collection if your recycling hasn’t been collected.

“If households have put their waste out on the new collection day and we inadvertently missed them from our rounds, we will return as quickly as we can to pick up the waste."

Further information can be found at www.swindon.gov.uk/info/20015/bins_rubbish_and_recycling