pic: Joshua Thorpe
Residents can recycle more items than ever before straight from their doorstep after Lewisham Council launched a new scheme.
The recycling scheme was agreed upon by the Council on Monday after a lengthy bidding process, in which a number of waste companies competed to handle recyclables in the borough for the next three years.
Bywaters Ltd, a recycling and resource management service based in Bow, won the contract. Their aim is to make recycling easier by collecting a range of items from residents’ doorsteps.
John Glover, managing director at Bywaters, said: “Bywaters delivers tailored solutions to London Boroughs and will work in partnership with Lewisham to increase overall recycling rates.”
He also told EastLondonLines the Bywaters processing plant has a sophisticated sorting system that can deal with many of the items not previously recyclable in Lewisham.
The Council will receive a share of the income from materials collected, which can later be used in other service areas.
Marlen Rostgard, 24, from Deptford, said the plan was fantastic news for the local area and the environment. She spoke of her excitement that mixed plastics, shredded paper, perfume bottles, aerosols and even clothes all can all go in the same recycling bin.
Councillor Susan Wise, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said: “The new scheme would make it much easier for people to recycle, and that it was great for pushing up Lewisham’s recycling rates.”
Source: guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/07/household-waste-recycling-by-area?fb=native
Figures show Lewisham recycled 16.85 per cent of its household waste in 2008/09, making it the second worst borough for recycling in England, and the worst of the EastLondonLines boroughs.
The new contract should raise the borough’s rates during the three-year contract. Lewisham Council’s target is to recycle 21 per cent of household waste by 2013/14. Currently the figure stands at 18 per cent.
With collections starting this week, residents in Lewisham are already beginning to fill their recycling bins and boxes.
For any more information about the collections, please email recycle@lewisham.gov.uk or call 020 314 7171.
