Calls to simplify recycling in Gloucester
The number of recycling bins each household has in Gloucester could go from four to just one
There are calls to reduce the number of recycling bins each household has in Gloucester from four to just one.
Gloucester City residents have two green recycling boxes, one for just glass, another for plastic, tins, foil and cartons, a blue sack for cardboard and paper and a food caddy for organic waste.
But residents say the current setup leads to messy streets with recycling boxes being blown over.
Bert Mahoney called on Gloucester City Council leaders at a meeting on July 18 to consider changing to a single recycling bin to avoid this problem.
“The green recycling boxes tend to get blown around in the wind causing an awful lot of mess,” he said.
“Would it be acceptable to have one bin that wouldn’t get blown away in the streets?
“While driving, I’ve had green bins blown out in front of my car. I thought consolidating into one bin would probably be a better way.”
Environment cabinet member Sebastian Field (LD, Podsmead) said it is not a simple and straightforward cost effective way to go to a green bin for everything.
He ruled out committing to such a change right now but said the authority would review how it deals with waste collection in future.
“It would cost an awful lot of money and it would involve a lot of money behind the scenes to replace what we already have.
“That’s something we intend to review as we go forward but it’s not something we can commit to right now.”
In a written response to Mr Mahoney, Cllr Field said dropping the green waste bin charge altogether would lose the council a significant amount of money, and would need service reductions to be made to other services, or income to be generated, to pay for what is essentially a discretionary service.
“I do not believe it would be the best use of taxpayer money to do this. With regards to recycling, councils already have the ability to deliver recycling how we want to, but in our case what we lack is the equipment and resources to do this.
“Changing to a single bin with all recycling mixed in would require a significant capital outlay in new bins, lorries and changes at the depot, and would also need to comply with any overarching government directives.
“This is something we will be looking at as resources allow. Our current recycling is very high quality due to kerbside sorting, and we do perform well on recycling rates when compared to our nearest statistical neighbours.”