Recycling Review - Your comments on Calderdale recycling

In the Christmas Recycling Guide, we asked you for your thoughts about the recycling service provided by Calderdale Council and our new recycling and refuse contractor Sita. By the time we stopped for the Christmas break, nearly a thousand of you had commented and we’d like to say a big thank you to all of you for giving us this valuable feedback.

We were certainly encouraged by what we read. Calderdale citizens really want to recycle, you think the service we provide is already good and want us to carry on improving it. And that’s just what we’ll be doing in 2009.

Nearly one third of all comments were complimentary about the quality of the existing service. For example: “Calderdale is fab at recycling”, “Doing well and getting better!”, “Having three children and no car I find the recycling fantastic and my children love to get involved” and “I think the facility to phone and arrange to have big items such as old washing machines picked up is a brilliant service!” are just four of the many supportive remarks.

Our dedicated recycling staff were often singled out for individual praise for their friendly assistance. For example at the newly refurbished Elland household waste recycling centre (HWRC), the combination of helpful staff and new facilities have proved particularly popular. “Here in Elland we are very well served. Staff at the HWRC are extremely helpful and polite, which in itself is an incentive to recycle.” “The new layout at Elland is fantastic and the staff are very helpful and friendly.”

And you’re looking forward to the major changes and improvements to the whole recycling and refuse operation that will be introduced in 2009: “Can't wait for the extra household recycling for next year. Excellent service” said one respondent. “The new system will be much better. Also the food waste is a great idea as we don't have a garden so can't really have a compost bin, but hate throwing stuff away for landfill. Thanks!” added another.

The other clear message from your comments is that nearly 30% of you want to recycle more plastic and can’t wait until you can do so from home. One of the key elements of the new arrangements in 2009 will be that households will be able to recycle plastic bottles every week. This subject produced some of our most enthusiastic responses, such as: “Please please please collect plastic, as this is the most prolific of the collectable items.” “It will be brilliant when plastic milk bottles are collected.” “I use the local HWRC to take my plastic bottles, so I'm delighted to hear that you’ll soon be collecting them from the doorstep. Well done.”

Of course, as with every survey of opinion, there are also some suggestions for improvement and a few criticisms of the existing service. We’ll be using these to help both the Council and Sita to improve your recycling service to meet your expectations and solve your problems. One such issue was the introduction of wheelie bins, with opinion about equally divided!

Overall however, we’re delighted to say that the overwhelming message from your comments is that there is a real enthusiasm for recycling across the borough! We’re already recycling around 25% of our household waste, and with this kind of support and drive, backed by significant investment by the Council, we’ll soon be on target for 40%. Over the next few pages, we’ll tell you about the changes we’ll be making this year, and how you can find out when they’ll reach your part of Calderdale.

Meanwhile, as so many of you told us, keep up the good work!