Plastic kerbside recycling set for households in the Cotswolds (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Plastic kerbside recycling set for households in the Cotswolds

11:50am Friday 20th November 2009

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KERBSIDE recycling of plastic could be on the cards for households in the Cotswolds.

Waste chiefs at Cotswold District Council this week hinted that they may have made enough in savings to be able to afford the service – which they have always dismissed as too expensive in the past.

At a recent CDC Cabinet meeting, council leader Lynden Stowe said he was confident the changes would further improve the recycling rates, currently 61 percent of all household waste, and overtake Staffordshire Moorlands to become the best in the country.

"Significant improvements have been made over the last few months," he said. "We introduced a waste service which is well at the leading edge of the country.

"With the introduction of plastic recycling next year we are set to be top."

Plastic kerbside collections have been championed by the Liberal Democrats on the council who handed in a petition in June signed by 600 residents calling for the collections to be introduced.

The Conservative-controlled Cabinet said at the time it would cost taxpayers an extra £380,000 a year and rejected it.

Cllr Paul Hodgkinson said: "If it’s going to be brought in then I’m delighted. It was the Liberal Democrats that kicked this campaign off with Cllr Roger Brown 18 months ago.

"What’s bizarre about the whole thing is that when we raised it only a few months ago we were ridiculed for bringing it in and told it wasn’t going to happen."

Savings have been made by reducing the crewing levels and new vehicles are set to be introduced next year which can collect all types of waste including plastics.

Cllr Barry Gibbs spoke in the absence of Cllr Mark Tufnell, Cabinet member for environment and communities, at the meeting saying that reducing the crewing level will save £200,000 by next year and the new vehicles will save £70,000 in operating costs on top of that.

This would reduce the average annual cost of the waste service per household by £7.

Last week the Lib Dems revealed the Cotswold district had the most expensive waste service in the region at £73 per household.

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