Home
BackYou are here: Home / Living in North Herts / Waste and Recycling Service / Domestic Waste and Recycling /
Changes in Waste & Recycling Services
In order to increase recycling rates, North Hertfordshire District Council has implemented a New Waste and Recycling Service. This has started on 15th October 2007. Feedback from residents through surveys and focus groups shows a clear desire to do more to reduce and recycle waste.
About one third of local authorities have now switched to an alternating weekly collection system and have achieved a significant reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill by changing the frequency of residual waste collection and introducing additional recycling facilities.
The main changes to the service
Your kerbside recycling collection has been enhanced with the addition of cans, tins and foil to join the current system of paper, glass and green waste. These cans, tins and foil go into the black box with the glass. Please keep the paper in the blue box separate and do not mix any other material in this box.
You are also able to place out any excess recycling you have (paper, glass and cans/ tins) as long as these are separated in containers and placed next to your recycling boxes. The containers i.e boxes or bags you use to put this material in is put back inside your recycling boxes.
Collection calendars have been sent to all residents and this information is also available on our website.
Your grey refuse bin is no longer collected every week. Your grey refuse bin is collected one week and your brown bin and recycling boxes is collected the next. Your collection calendar informs you which container(s) is to be collected when.
Plastics
Plastic bottle collection banks have started to be set up around the district in both rural and urban areas and we will be setting up further banks. Until now it has been difficult to recycle plastic bottles in some areas of the district but we hope that these new collection facilities will help to address this and make it easier for all residents who wish to recycle their plastic bottles. We will be setting up to seventy-five in total.
There are many good reasons why we should all endeavour to reduce the amount of waste we create, and to recycle more of it. However, there are also penalties to face if we do not. Strict waste minimisation targets have been set by the Landfill Directive. We have waste allowances under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, but each extra tonne which we landfill over our allowance could cost up to £150. In 2006/7 in North Herts we landfilled 37,099 tonnes of waste so action needs to be taken now.
If you would like to arrange a visit to do a waste audit of your rubbish bin, we would be glad to help and offer advice on how you can recycle more. Please contact us at service@north-herts.gov.uk or 01462 474000.