Blue bin boost for borough!

WARRINGTON’S blue bin brigade – the householders who make good use of the kerbside recycling service – have made the initiative an outstanding success in its first four and-a-half months.
They are helping the council to boost the town’s recycling rate by between 7-9 per cent – much better than Town Hall chiefs expected.
It is not saving the council any money yet – but with savings forecast and landfill taxes due to rise next month, savings should soon be seen.
Collections started on Septemer 30 and up to February 11, 6155.24 tonnes of recyclable material had been collected.
The cost, including revenue from paper sales passed on to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at Widnes, was some £320,000 compared with about £309,000 if it had all been sent to landfill.
But landfill costs will rise this year – and landfill tax rises from £32 per tonne to £40 per tonne next month.
Recycling markets are beginning to recover from the lows of October and November so the council expects to get a better deal from the MRF based on a longer term contract.
Reduced amount of waste going to landfill will also resulting changes to refuse collection services which will save £140,000 and further efficiencies are expected as a result of reduced use of the recycling centres at Gatewarth, Stockton Heath and Woolston and the sites on car parks and at supermarkets.
A council spokeswoman said: “Once recycling markets recover we can look forward to expansion of the blue bin service to include further items, further increasing our recycling rates and reducing waste to landfill.
“The tonnages collected to date are higher than expected when the service commenced.”