It’s all ‘Recycling’ systems go!

It’s less than two weeks to go until Calderdale launches its new improved recycling service on 20th April. And with the major task of issuing all those new wheelie bins and containers nearing its conclusion, we caught up with Malcolm Akroyd, the Council’s Waste Manager, to see how things were shaping up.

“Our contractor SITA’s just completing the job of distributing over 60,000 new wheelie bins and 90,000 food caddies to every household, and we hope that the white sacks for plastic bottle collections will all be delivered before the launch date,” he was able to announce. “If anyone hasn’t received their containers by 20th April they should contact us after then.”

Naturally, the exercise was bound to raise individual questions, but Malcolm’s team have been on hand to help. “Our Contact Centre has been very busy responding, most of all to requests for assisted collections from those people who meet the criteria – they won’t have to put their wheelie bins out on collection day”.

“We've also started reassessing households who have queried their eligibility for wheelie bins. We thank everybody for these inquiries and their continued cooperation as we respond to them.”

As the big day approaches, it is important that everyone checks to make sure they are ready for the changes, and starts introducing the new recycling into their daily routine. As Malcolm explains:

“It’s really important that every household knows which is their collection day of the week – especially as this may change with the new service. It will be the same collection day every week for both recycling and refuse, but some parts of Calderdale will be starting on ‘Week A’ and others on ‘Week B’ to balance the collection workload. To find out whether your area is beginning from 20th April with Week A or B, look on the calendar tag that came with your food caddy; but if you are not sure, please call 0845 245 7000. And we’ll soon have that information for every household on the postcode look-up facility on the Recycle for Calderdale website. It’ll make sure you put the right containers out on the right day.”

We’ll now be collecting plastic bottles, and your handy Recycling Guide, being sent to every household, will tell you which plastics we can and cannot recycle. But if you’ve been storing them up, don't put them all out at once, there's a collection every week. You can also start collecting food waste in your new caddies from Monday 13th, ready for your first collection the following week.”

Wheelie bins will always be collected in Week B only and this will usually be from the front of your property. However, if you store your bin at the rear and have access to an alleyway, your bin will be collected from the end of the alleyway (you may want to number your bin to identify it). If you store your bin at the rear and there is refuse vehicle access, your bins will be collected from there. If you’ve not been issued with a wheelie bin your plastic sacks will be collected from the same point as usual, but remember, this will only be once a fortnight in Week B.

Malcolm concluded: “Calderdale Council would like to thank everybody for their patience and cooperation as we go through this major change, which will take us all towards our recycling target of 40% by 2010. We hope that everyone is looking forward to making the best use of their new improved recycling service.”