06 : 17 am |3rd September 2010

Making it convenient to Recycle from Home

The Challenge:

The introduction of statutory recycling targets by central government in 2000 forced many local authorities to completely rethink the way they deal with rubbish.

Reaching these targets would be hard enough but, to complicate things further, the amount of waste produced by UK homes is still increasing every year, as is the cost of disposing of it.

The challenge for local government is to put in place recycling services which enable residents to get into the recycling habit with ease, which collect as many different materials as possible and which are collected in such a way as to prevent contamination.

The Solution:

May Gurney Environmental Services came to the conclusion in the early 90’s that, if higher recycling rates are to be achieved, then you have to make recycling both easy and convenient and where better than from home.

In response, May Gurney Recycling developed the Recycle from Home service whereby households are provided with a box, about the size of a milk crate, into which they can place their materials for collection.

The materials that can be put out for recycling include paper, glass, cans, foil, textiles, shoes, household batteries and engine oil. And the collections tend to be weekly to ensure people can recycle as often as possible.

Once the box is full it is placed outside the home for collection by May Gurney Environnmental Services. The materials are sorted at the kerbside to stop items getting mixed up and to prevent contamination.

Once back at the depot, the materials are stored and then sold for recycling to specialist contractors and merchants.

The Result:

We provide Recycle from Home services in partnership with over 8 local authorities partnerships and this helps to achieve recycling rates of up to 50 per cent.