Great New Year start to recycling in East Devon
East Devon households have made a great start to the New Year by recycling a huge 61% of their waste.
That means that, thanks to an extended recycling service introduced by the district council over the last 12 months, residents are now recycling almost 20% more than they did this time last year.
Over the two week festive and New Year period, the council’s contractors SUEZ collected 1,212 tonnes of recycling - 414 tonnes more than the same period last year under the old recycling system. These latest figures show that 61% of East Devon’s waste was recycled during the festive period - an increase of 19% compared to the beginning of last year.
Cllr Tom Wright, East Devon District Council’s portfolio holder for the environment, said: “This is a phenomenal result and I have nothing but praise and gratitude for our residents for playing their part in recycling so much and protecting our environment. This is the most recycling that East Devon has ever collected in a two week period and thank you to our hardworking crews who collected this huge volume of recycling, often in poor weather conditions.”
Along with the recycling, East Devon shredded more than 900 Christmas trees at eight different sites across the district in the New Year. Residents brought along their real trees to be shredded and the chippings will be used in local parks and gardens.
Since last February, the district council, in partnership with its contractors SUEZ, has rolled out the recycling service to all 68,700 East Devon properties and extended the range of items residents can now have collected from the kerbside every week. Cardboard, plastics, cartons and small electrical goods have been added to the extensive number of items that can be recycled. As householders are able to recycle more and throw away less bulky rubbish, grey wheeled waste bins are now collected every three weeks.
The move has led to a significant increase in the amount of waste that is now recycled in the district and the changes now put East Devon among the best recycling districts in England and nationally the council is in the top 30 best recycling authorities out of 351 local authorities in the country.
The council’s useful smart phone app has been a great help to communicate the changes by sending reminders about recycling and waste collection days tailored to the addresses of residents.
The East Devon mobile app is free and is available to download for iphone users from the Apple App Store and for Android smart phone users from the Google Play Store.
For further information on East Devon’s recycling and waste service call us on 01395 571515 or look at our website www.eastdevon.gov.uk
