Major changes to green bin recycling
From 1 April 2007, cardboard and kitchen waste has not been collected from the green bins in West Wiltshire.
The decision to change the recycling service has been taken jointly by Wiltshire County Council (responsible for disposing of rubbish) and West Wiltshire District Council (in charge of waste collection). We are sorry that we have had to do this, but we have no choice.
We now have to meet much tougher regulations and standards, which has affected what we can recycle and how we do it.
Card and kitchen waste collection to cease
Recycling is where previously used materials are collected and reprocessed with an environmental, and sometimes financial, benefit. If there is no market for the used materials, then recycling is not effective.
Waste collected from the green bins in West Wiltshire is taken for commercial composting - as such, the end product has to meet certain standards to be economically viable.
The compost produced in Wiltshire as a whole is accredited by the Soil Association and the Composting Association, as it meets the quality mark BSI PAS100 2005. However, green waste from West Wiltshire is not achieving the necessary standard.
This is due to:
- The high level of cardboard content; and
- The inclusion of kitchen waste.
We are victims of our own success with cardboard. When we started alternate weekly collections, the available evidence suggested that composting was a suitable disposal method. However, the quantity being collected in West Wiltshire has proven far greater than expected.
It is now clear that we would be better recycling cardboard separately rather than trying to compost it with green waste. Click here to find out more about cardboard recycling.
With kitchen waste, we have been overtaken by events. Since our recycling scheme started, the Animal By-Products Regulations - designed to prevent the spread of diseases such as e-coli and salmonella - have been tightened up. Click here to find out more about how to deal with kitchen waste.
As a result, from 1 April 2007, we have been unable to collect cardboard or kitchen waste through the green bin.