Massive Recycling Project To Be Rolled Out Across The City

A massive programme to promote recycling on the go is being launched by the Liberal Democrat-led Cambridge City Council at a cost of £800,000 over four years.

Dual purpose bins, designed to collect rubbish and recycling, will be located in streets and open spaces across the city.

It is expected Parker’s Piece will be the first big open space to get the bins following a daily litter problem in the area last summer.

Consultation is to take place on the style of bins to be provided, ensuring they are aesthetically pleasing and easy for the public to use, and on areas which have seen particular problems.

Cambridge City Council has allocated £200,000 a year for the next four years to fund the project.

Jean Swanson, Executive Councillor for Environment and Waste Services said: “This scheme would tackle some of the main problem areas in the city and allow large amounts of waste to be recycled at the same time.

“Bins will be designed to be dual purpose – collecting the litter and recycling - making the whole process much more efficient and less time consuming. We hope that these bins, which may be of several different styles, can be placed on streets and open spaces where we know there are on-going litter problems to encourage people to take responsibility for keeping these areas clean.”

Christmas Bin Collections and City Council opening hours

The Christmas holidays always bring some disruption to bin collections owing to the cluster of bank holidays. This year is no exception and collections usually scheduled between Boxing Day and January 6th are all moved back one day.

This means if your bins are due to be collected on Thursdays, then they won't be collected on the 29th December and 5th January, but will instead be collected on Friday 30th and and Friday 6th January.

Collections should be back to normal on the week starting Monday 9th January.

On the subject of bins and Christmas, after the holidays real Christmas trees can be recycled by either taking them to Cherry Hinton Hall, or (more likely from this side of Cambridge) by cutting them up and placing in Green bins.

More details can be found on the Christmas Opening pages of the City Council website.

Cambridge City Council have also published details of opening hours for the Service Centre, City Homes and King's Hedges Learner pool (among others). These can all be found on that page.

Hopefully we won't have the same problems with snow as we had last year, but if we do then keep an eye on the City Council webpage for service updates.

If you have any problems or comments on the services, please let the team know.

Reducing waste: food events in King's Hedges

Supported by Cambridge City's Recycling Champions three events have been arranged for the "Love food, hate waste" campaign. These are intended to be fun events to give ideas about how to reduce food bills and reduce rubbish in the bin.

The first event was on Thursday last week with a butcher.

The next two events are both at Arbury Community Centre, and are free with no need to book. Just turn up.

On Thursday 14 April there is a family food fair, with lots of stalls about different ways to feed a family. The hope is for it to be a fun family activity during the school holidays. It runs from 10am until 1pm.

Finally on Thursday 28 April at 10.30am a professional chef will be demonstrating how to make tasty meals out of leftovers and common store cupboard ingredients. The results will be available for tasting by the audience.

Love Food, Hate Waste?

On Thursday 17th February from 10.30 until 1pm, Arbury Community Centre will be hosting a Love Food, Hate Waste workshop for people interested in reducing the waste they send to landfill, and getting the most from the food they buy.

It is aimed at our local recycling champions, who are volunteers, who work to increase our recycling and decrease our waste in their communities. The City Council is on the look for more, so if you are interested in either the workshop or becoming a champion please get in touch with me. (The organisers would like some idea of numbers in advance!)

Low Energy Bulb and Battery Recycling

I've not seen this mentioned anywhere so I thought I'd let people know that the if you are unlucky enough to have any Low Energy bulbs that have stopped working then you can recycle them.

I spotted this recycling unit in the recycling centre behind the Council officers on Arbury Road (in the Arbury Court car park). Given the incredibly cheap price of these bulbs at the moment (one large DIY store I was in earlier today was selling them for 10p each) it's good to see that recycling is now possible as that should remove one further reason for people not to use them.

City Cuts Rubbish to Landfill (despite increase in number of homes)

Cambridge City Council has cut the amount of rubbish it sends to landfill by more than 2,500 tonnes despite the number of homes increasing by around 1,500.

Figures show that in 2006/07 596kg of black bin waste was collected from each household making a total of 28,124 tonnes across the city. Last year 526kg of waste was collected from each home making a total of 25,595 tonnes – a reduction of 12 per cent.

Mike Pitt, your local ward Councillor and Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services said:

"These figures are extremely encouraging. They relate directly to the effort made by residents to maximise their recycling and reduce the amount of waste they put in their black bins and gives the city council an enviable recycling record among councils across the county and the country generally."

"We have seen the amount of waste per household steadily falling over the last four years and we will continue to work to encourage recycling wherever we can."

This trend is exceptionally good news, especially in times of economic uncertainty and really shows that the people of Cambridge, if given the opportunity to recycle, clearly think it's worthwhile.

If you have something to dispose of and want to check to see if it's recyclable then there is always the Cambridge Recycling Directory which lists how to dispose of common items in a sustainable way.

Light Bulb Recycling at Arbury Court

Yesterday Recolight installed a bank to collect energy saving lightbulbs (and batteries) for recycling at the recycling point at Budgens in Arbury Court.

This is a one year trial to see if the amount collected is viable for the company, there is no charge to the City Council for the service so they need enough donated bulbs to make it profitable.

The bulbs are recycled in the UK.

There are also collection points at

• Tesco on Newmarket Road
• Cherry Hinton Hall
• Focus DIY on Tenison Road
• Lammas Land

as well as the first one introduced at Coldhams Lane Sainsbury.

Picture from wikipedia care of Creative Commons license.

Cambridgeshire County Council Recycling Bus Launch

Today at King's Hedges Primary School the County Council launched their new Recycling Buses. This is part of a programme of waste education and campaigning undertaken by the County in schools and local communities across Cambridgeshire and also coincides with the European Week for Waste Reduction.

The purpose of these new buses is to tour the County visiting schools and introducing children to the ideas of Recycling and Reuse.

The buses were officially launched by Barbara Follett MP (Minister for the East of England). Joining her at the launch were myself, Belinda Brooks-Gordon (County Councillor for Castle), Tony Orgee (Cabinet member for Economy and the Environment), and Bernard Warr (Head of Waste Management at the County Council).

Cambridgeshire has actually done pretty well when it comes to recycling achieving a rate of 44% for household recycling. Hopefully the newly introduced blue-bins we've been seeing rolled out in the city will increase the recycling rate here.

Cambridge News on recycling contract

The Cambridge News have run article about the newly agreed contract with a Materials Recycling Facility. It can be read online.

You should be getting a sticker on your black bin explaining the next steps with the blue bins soon. The bins will be delivered over the next few weeks and the service will start city wide on 16 November: your first collection will be the first green bin day after that date.

Recycling Getting Easier: Blue Bins

This is the first time we've mentioned it on the Blog, but you may have seen it in Cambridge Matters or at the stand at Arbury Carnival.

The City Council is changing how we collect kerbside recycling to try and increase the amount we collect and hopefully make it easier for residents to recycle more.

The change is to drop the boxes and introduce a third blue wheelie bin. You may have seen the argument about the colour in the Cambridge News! Other cities have introduced similar schemes: I know Derby has a three bin system.

At this stage the City Council are keen to hear from people where the third bin may not be possible. On their website we have a list of places we know may be a problem. If you think there may be an issue where you live check the list and if you aren't on it get in touch with the council by email or through the website.

Where there isn't space we have a range of options that need to be discussed with residents.

Of course if your are worried you can also get in touch with one of the team: in this case it might be best to contact me.

New battery recycling point in King's Hedges

Cambridge City Council has teamed up with Budgens in Arbury Court to provide a battery collection point in the store. This service opened today!

This is the third bin in the city, following one located in the council’s own Customer Service Centre on Regent Street and one in Waitrose in Trumpington.

Quoting from the City Council press release:

“Working with local shops is a good way to get the collection points where people really need them, and means people don’t have to make extra journeys to recycle” says Recycling Officer Rebecca Weymouth.

As well as helping to manage the collections, the retailers contribute towards the cost of recycling the batteries, as part of their producer responsibilities.

Budgens’ manager Brian Moorey was keen to get involved. “We recognise that as a key focal point for the local community we have the opportunity to support projects like this and help them to succeed. We want to give something back – both to people
living here and to the environment, and the battery recycling project is just one of many ways we are trying to do just that.”

Since the first battery bank was installed last year, about 130,000 household batteries have been collected for recycling. The old batteries are taken away by G&P Batteries and sorted in a UK facility before being sent for recycling in Europe. The metal casings are melted down and recycled, and the chemicals are extracted to be reused in other applications.

This is a welcome addition to the recycling opportunities in King's Hedges. Many thanks to the staff at Budgens and to the recycling team at the City Council.

Delay on Ship recycling centre

A legal problem has arisen with the improvements planned for the Ship recycling centre on Northfield Avenue. This means that work has been stopped until the problem can be resolved. We hope that a solution can be found, but watch this space.

Ship recycling centre update

The plans for the proposed improvements are available online.

If you have any comments get in touch with Neil McGovern in the usual way.

Northfield Avenue Recycling Centre

At North Area Committee we were presented with plans for improvements to the recycling centre at the corner of the Ship's car park in Northfield Avenue. This is an area in great need of improvement!

We hope we can put the revised plans on our blog to allow residents to comment, but if you want to be kept informed contact Neil McGovern, who is the scheme's champion, to register your interest now.

Recycling centres

Good news from City Homes. In an attempt to increase the recycling rates the Housing Officers are making a big effort to find suitable sites for recycling depots for flats in the ward.

The first consultations have taken place and others have recently started.

If you get a letter asking your opinion do let us know. I am sure most people would welcome more recycling, and if you would respond to say so.

At the moment I have letters for Albemarle and Nicholson Ways, and have seen various sites in Minerva Way.