As the Council gets ready to start its new rubbish collection service from November 6, children from Oldfield Park Junior School have had a glimpse of the new rubbish collection vehicles that they helped add their messages to.
As the current collection vehicles reach the end of their useful life the new vehicles will now be able to collect from wheelie bins. The wheelie bins, or in some cases, re-usable rubbish bags have been issued to households across Bath and North East Somerset as part of the new every other week rubbish collections that start next week.
The new service is part of the Council’s efforts to help increase recycling across the area and reduce the amount of rubbish left on the streets by making sure that rubbish is properly contained. It will also help to make the Council’s services more affordable. Just one lorry load of rubbish costs £1,000 to dispose of whilst a lorry load of recycling earns the Council £100 to offset against the costs of the service.
The children have helped to come up with their own messages to go on the sides of the vehicles to help encourage people to recycle more of their waste, following a competition encouraging local schools to send in their ideas.
Mrs Mel Green, teacher at Oldfield Park Junior School said; ‘Staff and children at Oldfield Park Junior School are passionate about the environment and recycling. We actively educate the children about the importance of recycling and cutting back on landfill waste. We have numerous recycling bins around the school grounds and inside classrooms and encourage our children to take an active role in keeping them tidy. Our Year 4 topic last June was titled ‘Think global, act local’ and inspired the children to enter the B&NES competition to create a slogan for the launch of their new refuse fleet and collection times. We were all very proud and excited by both their enthusiasm for the challenge and their success in the competition.’
Councillor Bob Goodman, (Conservative, Combe Down), Cabinet Member for Development & Neighbourhoods, said: “This is one of many ways in which we have worked closely with the local community in helping everyone get ready for the new rubbish collection service.
“We have held roadshows and talks where we have spoken to over 7,000 people and our Waste Doctors have visited over 500 properties to help people prepare for the new collections. We would also like to say thank you to all the residents who have helped us with our social media campaign by sharing their tips about recycling and reducing waste.
“We appreciate that change can sometimes take a bit of getting used to. However we have been encouraged by the many positive responses we have had from residents we have spoken to in the street and at our roadshows who are looking forward to the new service.’
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Tracey Kidd in Temple Cloud. “To be honest we weren’t filling our rubbish bin every week anyway, but our recycling was always full. It makes sense to us as recycling is more prevalent and the recycling service is expanding so much.”
Diane in Keynsham is looking forward to being able to prevent animals getting into her bin. She said: “I think the new bins will be super. I don’t get up in time to put my bin bags out so I have to take my rubbish to the tip each week. Now I’ll be able to put it out the night before without having to worry about animals getting into my rubbish.”
The containers will limit the amount of left over rubbish that can go out each week, helping encourage residents to make the most of the weekly food waste and recycling collections where the Council collects up to 17 different types of items.
Residents will not be able to put out extra bags of rubbish but instead can request additional recycling containers to help maximise the amount they recycle. These can be collected from the Council’s Recycling Centres for those who would prefer to collect them.
Deliveries of bins and bags will continue up until the new service starts but if you are concerned that you haven’t had your bin or bag, or the welcome pack that comes with it, please get in touch with the Council.
As the rubbish will now be collected every other week the Council is offering residents the chance to sign up for their text reminder service to help get started with the new collections. If you wish to sign up, simply type in your postcode to 07520 631700.
You can find out more about the new service by going to www.bathnes.gov.uk/recycle or by contacting Council Connect (councilconnect@bathnes.gov.uk 01225 39 40 00). Further information about the service can also be found at the Waste Services Facebook page www.facebook.com/recycleforbathnes
