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It's time to sack the
recycling
A DRIVE to cut the amount of recyclable
waste sent to landfill in Liverpool is getting underway, on Monday, 6 March 2017.
The City Council is beginning a roll out of larger 90 litre reusable sacks to
replace 55 litre recycling boxes for up to 26,000 terraced homes with four foot
alleyways.
It is estimated that 21,000 tonnes of recyclable goods have to be buried each
year because residents are placing it in a purple bin or black sacks rather than
the blue recycling bin.
Every tonne of residual waste from the purple bins costs twice as much to treat
as recyclable waste, meaning an additional bill of around £1.2 million per year
for Council Tax payers.
A successful pilot of the sacks in County ward last year drove up the amount
collected by 20%.
Crews will start distributing them in Greenbank before rolling them out to
relevant properties in Anfield, Central, County, Cressington, Everton,
Fazakerley, Kensington and Fairfield, Kirkdale, Mossley Hill, Picton, Princes
Park, Old Swan, Riverside, Speke Garston, St Michaels, Tuebrook and Warbreck by
the end of April.
Councillor Steve Munby, Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said:- "The
high proportion of terraced properties with narrow alleyways in Liverpool means
we have a particular challenge in providing the best storage methods for
residents.
We know that the larger sacks proved popular when we carried out a pilot scheme
last year because they are much bigger than the blue boxes.
This is part of a much scheme to make our streets cleaner and greener in which
we are replacing paving and carrying out other environmental improvements in
four foot alleys to improve the conditions in which rubbish is presented for
collection.
We are also going to be increasing our recycling collections where we think it
will make a difference, educating people about which bin to use, improving our
response to flytipping and taking action against those that dump in our City as
part of our commitment to make Liverpool cleaner and greener."
In the coming months, there will be:-
► An expansion of weekly recycling services to cover all 5,500
City Centre
apartment blocks; increasing the amount of recyclable waste collected by 114
tonnes per year.
► A pilot of weekly recycling in some areas with terraced properties.
► An education programme in primary schools to promote the importance of
recycling.
Following a request from Mayor Joe Anderson for the Council to crackdown on
environmental crime, the number of mobile teams tackling fly tipping is being
doubled from 2 to 4 with more emphasis on finding and fining those responsible,
particularly builders and businesses illegally dumping trade waste.
And a team of 17 environmental enforcement officers from Kingdom are on the
streets of the City Centre and district centres issuing £80 fines to people
caught dropping litter or allowing their dogs to foul.
RECYCLING IN NUMBERS:-
► 33% of waste recycled in Liverpool (projected
2016/17).
► 18,000 tonnes of green waste collected (2016/17).
► 21,000 tonnes of recyclable items wrongly placed in
the purple bin every year.
► 28,000 houses receiving a weekly black sack
collection.
► 196,000 houses receiving an alternate weekly
collection of purple and blue bins. |
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On the spot fines to tackle
litter in Liverpool
A crackdown on litter is beginning in
Liverpool with the launch of a new team to issue fines to those who drop rubbish
on the City's streets. It follows Mayor Joe Anderson's recent pledge to tackle
the issue of environmental crime and those responsible by significantly
increasing the 277 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued over in 2016.
The City Council is running a 12 month pilot with Kingdom, which works with
local authorities across the country to tackle environmental crime. They will
have 17 enforcement officers on the streets of the City Centre and district
centres equipped with body cameras issuing £80 penalty notices to those they see
dropping litter or allowing their dogs to foul.
Proceeds from the on the spot fines will be reinvested in tackling environmental
activities such as tackling litter, graffiti and fly posting.
Street cleaning currently costs Liverpool Council Tax payers £8 million per year
and last year more than 6,500 tonnes of waste was collected by street cleansing
teams.
Councillor Steve Munby, Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said:- "Our
City is not just the place where we all live and work, but also a magnet for
millions of tourists and visitors from around the world. Sadly, I am sometimes
ashamed when I see the way in which a minority of people treat our streets as a
dumping ground.
We're doing our bit to keep the streets tidy by introducing 200 larger litter
bins across Liverpool and piloting an extension of street cleansing hours in the
City Centre. As part of that we expect people to help us keep the City tidy as
well.
Dropping litter is not about keeping a street cleanser in a job. It is
anti social behaviour and blights communities. Making our streets look scruffy
just because you're too lazy to find a bin is just not acceptable and we're not
going to tolerate it.
We're saying enough is enough and we need people to take pride in our City. This
new team will take a zero tolerance approach to dropping litter and will hit
those responsible hard in the pocket.
This is just 1 of a series of measures we are taking to make Liverpool cleaner
and send out a strong message that environmental crime will be tackled, whether
it's litter, dog fouling or flytipping. Using Kingdom will enable us to redeploy
our staff to dealing with some of the more complex environmental crime issues
such as tracking down those responsible for fly tipping."
Michael Fisher, Environmental Protection Director at Kingdom, said:-
"Kingdom are delighted to be working in partnership with Liverpool City Council
with the aim of reducing the amount of litter and dog excrement currently
deposited on the streets and public places in Liverpool.
We will be deploying trained and experienced teams to join forces with the
Council's in house teams to deploy in identified hotspots in an intelligence led
manner. Whilst enforcing the appropriate legislation we envisage a positive
knock on effect of educating those who would commit these offences and thereby
reduce the amount of litter unlawfully deposited and this will result in the
City being safer, greener and cleaner."
The launch of the new enforcement team follows a recent request from the Mayor
for a series of measures to drive a change in behaviour in those residents that
fail to responsibly manage their waste and other environmental crime.
The City Council is doubling the number of teams tackling fly tipping and
improving four foot alleyways to improve conditions for storage of waste as well
as introducing larger recycling sacks, expanding weekly recycling services for
City Centre apartment blocks and piloting weekly recycling.
Last week, 2 serial fly tippers who were caught dumping tonnes of illegal trade
waste, including asbestos, yards from a children's dance school were jailed
following a surveillance operation by the Council and Merseyside Police. |
