Recycling collections spreading to households throughout city

York Council is expanding its kerbside recycling service to homes in the city's narrow Victorian streets which had previously presented major problems for refuse collection teams.

A trial in The Groves neighbourhood last year saw a variety of collection methods tested. It proved a success and the service is now being expanded throughout the city.

The council announced plans earlier this year to invest nearly half a million pounds in its kerbside recycling scheme as part of the authority's drive to save up to 15m from its budgets in the next three years.

The overhaul of recycling collections for households across York also aims to slash the time it takes refuse crews to pick up rubbish and save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.

York Council's executive member for neighbourhood services, Coun Ann Reid, admitted there would be teething problems throughout the coming months.

She said: "It is a very big job, and it is a little like a jigsaw. We need to take our time and get the message out to the public to make sure all the pieces fit.

"But we need to invest in the services and make the changes to ultimately increase recycling rates and save money."

Since 2005, about three quarters of the 90,000 homes across York have had their recycling and garden waste collected one week, and their rubbish picked up the following week.

However, terrace-house streets with narrow back lanes, flats and apartments were not initially included as they pose a number of practical difficulties.

The vast majority of flats are now included in the collection rounds, and the services were introduced to terrace properties in the Leeman Road, Holgate and Acomb areas of the city last month. Houses in the South Bank and Bishopthorpe Road neighbourhoods are due to be included within the next six months.

The move is also aimed at complying with demands from Westminster for all households to receive a recycling collection for at least two materials from the end of December.

In another move, all householders will now be given boxes to separate recyclable materials into paper and card, glass bottles and jars and plastic bottles and cans.

It will streamline the current system, which involves collection crews often having to sort through rubbish to divide it up for recycling as they load it on to their trucks.

The terrace houses and flats which are now being incorporated into the recycling collections are already being given the boxes, and the rest of York's homes will have the new system introduced from next month.

The trial which took place in The Groves neighbourhood demonstrated that the overhauled scheme will more than halve the time it takes for crews to collect recyclable materials – from 77 seconds to 18 seconds per household.

The introduction of the kerbside recycling service and alternate week rubbish collections in 2005 has ensured that the city is one of the top performers nationally for recycling.

About 45 per cent of all waste is now recycled, compared to just 17.8 per cent in 2004/05.

The increases have also helped the council to avoid heavy financial penalties that would have been imposed if it had failed to meet government targets aimed at reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill sites.

In 2009/10, the council sent 52,050 tonnes to landfill sites, compared to 82,780 tonnes in 2004/05.

It is estimated the reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill sites has saved the council 5.27m in fines between 2005/06 and 2009/10.