Camden residents set to receive details of waste collection changes
Camden residents, whose collections are set to change as part of the council’s new Environment Services contract, will begin to receive a leaflet in the post from this Friday (13th) to explain the changes.
The new, smarter and better value contract with Veolia, which begins on 1 April, will save the council £5 million a year on recycling collections, rubbish collections and street cleaning, whilst still keeping Camden’s streets clean and tidy.
All households in the borough will continue to receive a weekly recycling and food waste collection.
Around 30% of Camden’s households will move to fortnightly residual rubbish collections (maps showing these streets are available by clicking here and selecting 5. marked in blue). These households are being contacted to notify them of the changes, having been assessed as having enough space (after separating all their recycling) to store rubbish over two weeks in a wheelie bin or orange Camden branded rubbish bags (depending on the property).
“Over 85% of an average rubbish bin in Camden contains recyclable materials, but Camden residents currently only recycle 25% on average. We need to do more as a borough to boost the amount we are recycling and I believe this new approach will help us do that.
“Weekly collection of recycling and food waste will continue for all households. This will ensure that those households moving to fortnightly residual rubbish collection will be able to appropriately recycle and remove food waste, and be left with sufficient space to store any residual rubbish left over – whether in the provided wheelie bin or branded bags.
“It costs the council far less to process recyclable materials, so by boosting recycling rates the council is not only helping the environment, but saving money. As our grants from central government continue to reduce it is vital that we make such savings.”
In 2015, residents took part in the Camden Waste Challenge – a public engagement programme that set out the council’s future waste, recycling and cleansing challenges and sought public views on how we meet these challenges. This included how the borough can achieve a 40% household recycling rate by 2020. The majority of residents taking part in the Challenge agreed that more should be done to limit the amount of waste produced in Camden, and to boost the amount of waste that is recycled.
Camden Council joins over 76% of local authorities who prioritise recycling and are already delivering fortnightly rubbish collections across the country.
For more information about the new Environment Services contract visit camden.gov.uk/recyclingandrubbish