West Lindsey: District council are exceeding the target for household recycling

West Lindsey District Council are among the councils who are exceeding or meeting the recycling target for household waste.
The West Lindsey District Council Recycling teamThe West Lindsey District Council Recycling team
The West Lindsey District Council Recycling team

There are 73 councils in England where the rate of household recycling has already exceeded the EU target for the UK which is to recycle at least 50 per cent of waste generated by households by 2020.

West Lindsey District Council is rated at 38 out of 73 with 54.2 per cent of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting.

Ady Selby, Team Manager Operations at West Lindsey District Council said: “We have achieved more than 50 per cent recycling since we introduced the popular triple bin scheme in 2009.

“The service combines a free garden waste service, co-mingled dry recycling and residual waste, all collected fortnightly for eight months of the year. Garden waste is suspended in winter months.

“Satisfaction with waste collection continues to increase and last year 93 per cent of residents were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received.

“West Lindsey has been nominated for a Best Performer Award for Refuse Collection at the Association of Public Service Excellence Awards in each of the last five years and has won the award on two occasions.

“To win this we are benchmarked against around seventy other local authorities in categories such as efficiency, satisfaction, value for money, health and safety, training and Human Resources.

“We continue to invest both in the latest technology and in our workforce to ensure their safety and the safety of the public in general.

“Latest innovations include 360 degree cameras on vehicles as well as trackers and reversing aids.

“Drivers and loaders undergo bespoke training on a regular basis. We are also members of the Lincolnshire Health and Safety Forum which brings together operational managers, corporate health and safety advisors and industry experts to share best practise.”

Justin Bowden, GMB National Officer for refuse and recycling workers, said: “It is a great credit to all those working in waste collection and recycling that such great strides have been made over the last decade to recycle more at the same time as increasing efficiency.

“We are well on the way for many councils to meet the EU target for the UK to recycle at least 50 per cent of waste generated by households by 2020.

“In addition to this, for the first time more waste is incinerated with energy recovery (30.1 per cent of all local authority collected waste) than has been sent to landfill sites (24.6 per cent).”