A bag sorting trial has been rolled out to five more recycling sites in the East Riding thanks to residents making it a success.
A trial was launched at the Driffield household waste recycling site in March by East Riding of Yorkshire Council to encourage visitors to sort through their bags of mixed materials that they take along to get rid of.
The aim was to make sure even more items were recycled, and thanks to residents getting behind the scheme, it led to a 3.5% increase in the recycling figure for the Driffield site each month.
Now this month the council has rolled out the scheme to household waste recycling sites at Carnaby, Pocklington, Weel near Beverley, Airmyn near Goole, and Humberfield at Hessle.
And it is due to be introduced at the four remaining sites – Holme on Spalding Moor, Hornsea, Withernsea and Preston – by August.
The council is urging residents to sort their bags of waste before taking them to household waste recycling sites.
Most people do that already, but some take along a bag of waste and put it straight into the general skip.
So to reach those people, the bag sorting scheme was introduced.
At all five new sites, a sorting table is provided, with gloves, a litter picker, paper towels and anti-bacterial handwash.
Site staff direct residents with bags or boxes of waste to visit the table so they can sort through their own waste.
Recycling containers for each type of item are sited next to the table – so people don’t have to travel across the site to the various skips.
Items that can’t be recycled can then be placed into a site’s general waste skip.
Leaflets advising people of the new system are being handed out at each site, alongside new signs being put up.
It is hoped he move will lead to more items being recycled.
During the trial at the Driffield site, the bag sorting area resulted in more than six tonnes of waste being diverted to recycling containers, which would otherwise have gone into the general waste skip.
Overall, there was 50 tonnes less of general waste collected in the containers on site – a lot of which is believed to be down to residents sorting more waste before going to the site.
The Driffield site’s overall recycling figure was an impressive 86% for April and May, meaning 86% of all the items taken along by residents could be recycled or reused.
The remainder was used as refuse derived fuel and sent to be burnt at a specialised plant in order to generate electricity. Nothing is sent to landfill.
Councillor Chris Matthews, the council’s portfolio holder for environment and climate change, said: “I’m extremely pleased that the initial trial was supported by residents, and thanks to their extra efforts, they helped even more waste get recycled.
“Now we have introduced the bag sorting scheme at five other sites, and I’ve no doubt that residents there will do the same and show their support, because the East Riding is one of the best recycling areas in the country.”
In an extra move, a skip especially for carpets and mattresses has been introduced at the Driffield site to help residents recycle even more of their waste.
Items that can be recycled at household waste recycling sites include:
- Books
- Cans
- Car batteries
- Cardboard
- Chemicals (max 5 litres in labelled and sealed container)
- Cooking oil
- DVDs
- Electrical items
- Engine oil (max 5 litres)
- Fluorescent tubes
- Fridges and freezers
- Gas bottles
- General waste
- Glass
- Green waste
- Household batteries
- Ink and toner cartridges
- Large domestic appliances e.g. washing machines, cookers…
- Light bulbs
- Mobile phones
- Paint tins (see attendant at site for disposal)
- Paper
- Plaster board
- Plastic bottles
- Rigid plastics
- Scrap
- Soil and rubble
- Spectacles
- Textiles
- TVs
- Tyres (max 5, includes tyres on rims)
- Wood
- Reuse – items can be donated for resale to benefit Dove House Hospice
