Our City p24
24
13/5/10
13:19
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Our City M A R C H 2 0 1 0
Special report on recycling and composting
for Stoke
Flats residents join forces to lighten the recycling load COMPOSTING is proving a big hit at two blocks of flats where residents turned to Stoke-on-Trent City Council for help when revised household rubbish collections left some struggling with their bin bags. Up until last autumn, council cleaners at the nine storey Port Vale and Arthur Cotton Courts in Burslem carried people’s bags to the collection skip outside. But rule changes meant that stopped for everyone but the elderly, vulnerable or those with mobility problems. Some worried their bags were too heavy to carry downstairs so the Hamil Heights Residents’ Association came up with an inspired solution. The organisation decided to lighten people’s load through composting and got in touch with the city council to help set up the scheme. A composting bin has now been provided so residents can dispose of green and brown waste like tea bags, vegetable peelings, egg boxes and garden clippings as they go along. 44-year-old Annette Bellyou, Secretary of the Residents’ Association, said:“We’re a street in the sky so living in a block of flats has its difficulties where bins are concerned.
Annette Bellyou, of the Hamil Heights Residents’ Association, is a keen recycler and composter. “We don’t have the recycling bins people have in houses so we felt residents were missing out. I went to the city council with our idea and they said it was excellent. They were very keen. Now about 40 per cent of people here have taken up the scheme so we’re really chuffed. People seem to like the
idea and it’s working really well.” The recycling initiative makes rubbish disposal easier and has the added benefit of producing compost for residents’ use. Rachel Gumbley, Waste Minimisation Officer at the city council, said:“It was a great idea that proves people do think
about their waste. We were only too pleased to help out and would encourage more residents there to take up the scheme.” The flats also have recycling containers for cans, glass and paper and are next set to get a container so they can recycle plastics like margarine tubs and plastic milk bottles.
New deal set to boost
green city drive A
MULTI million pound contract has been awarded for the recycling of Stoke-on-Trent’s garden, food and cardboard waste.
The city council has signed a 10-year deal with Vital Earth of Ashbourne worth between £600,000 and £750,000 a year. The contract has a three-year break clause, which gives the city council the option of pursuing other contracts for alternative types of recycling for food and garden waste.
Cut price bins up for grabs DISCOUNTED compost bins are being offered via a special recycling website involving Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The Recycle for Staffordshire and Stoke initiative offers composting converters and rain-saving water butts and advice on how to use them. Go to www.staffs.getcom posting.com for special offers.
Before the introduction of the enhanced recycling scheme, garden waste collected in brown bins from 80,000 households was recycled through an open air composting process. Government regulations meant food and cardboard could not be processed this way and instead went to produce energy at the Hanford Energy from Waste plant. The award of the contract now means that a combination of food, green and cardboard waste is being turned into award winning, organic compost at Vital Earth’s state of the art £10 million plant in Derbyshire. The contract was awarded after a European tender process and builds on the success of a trial in Meir and Bentilee involving 14,000 properties in spring 2009. In Bentilee, the recycling rate increased by 86 per cent and overall composting by 195 per cent. Thirteen city council refuse collection vehicles will now unload at a licensed waste transfer depot provided by Vital Earth in Longton and the firm will then bulk transfer the material to its plant.
The scheme is already showing early signs of success in Stokeon-Trent and contributed to an overall percentage jump of around 10 per cent in the city’s recycling rate in 2009-10 The city council has yet to receive its officially audited recycling rate for a full year using the new system. Jane Forshaw, Head of Environmental Services, said: “The contract we have signed enables us to recycle waste in a more efficient way and guarantees that it will be making a significant contribution to the environment. “We are constantly looking for new ways to improve our methods of recycling and this contract will allow us to expand a service we are already proud of. Indeed, we are trailing Vital Earth’s award winning compost in growing our award winning plants at the council’s Greenhouse 2000 facility.” All areas of Stoke-on-Trent benefit from recycling collections and the new enhanced scheme involving Vital Earth covers three quarters of the city. A review is underway of those areas not currently taking part.
Waste Minimisation officer Rachel Gumbley with Commercial Services Manager Andy Mayer.
City’s garden waste produces award-winning compost GARDEN waste from Stoke-on-Trent is being recycled and used to make award-winning compost. Material recycled through the city council’s brown bin scheme is used in two Vital Earth products, which made the top three in a Which? Gardening consumer magazine test of container compost. Vital Earth’s Tub and Basket compost came first with a score of 83 per cent. The firm’s Multi Purpose compost came equal second with 82 per cent. Both have been named as Best Buys. The top three are peat free and
Which? described it as a milestone at a time when the Government has set a 2010 deadline for 90 per cent of the market for compost and soil conditioners to be peat free. Andrew Mayer, Commercial Services Manager at the city council, said “It’s win, win. “The people of the city are really making a fantastic contribution and they don’t really realise how much they’re doing to help save the environment.” Green fingered staff at the city council are now test growing plants in the Vital Earth composts for use around the city.