Future of recycling in Tamworth discussed by councillors

Plans for the future of recycling collections in Tamworth were discussed by members of Tamworth Borough Council’s Cabinet last night.

Both Tamworth and Lichfield councils, which operate waste collections through a shared service, have now agreed to further explore the preferred option of ‘dual-stream’ recycling. This would see residents being asked to separate out paper and card from their blue bin waste. Glass, cans and plastics would continue to be collected in the existing blue bins.

However final decisions on how the service might look in future now depend on the outcome of further discussions with Staffordshire County Council about funding.

Tamworth Borough Council has delivered waste services in partnership with Lichfield District Council under a shared arrangement since 2010.

The joint service’s contract with Biffa Waste for the disposal of dry mixed recycling comes to an end in March 2022, which has led the two councils to look at how recycling is collected when the current contract ends.

Globally, the market for dry recycling has changed dramatically and countries which purchase recycling waste now demand much higher quality of materials. The cost of disposing of mixed dry recycling in the current format (all in one bin) has therefore increased significantly and it’s become clear there are more environmentally friendly and financially viable methods of recycling the materials collected.

Councillors have therefore been exploring how the quality of recycling can be improved, while minimising the cost of the service as much as possible.

A potential solution is to separate the recycling waste further which would lead to a higher quality of recycling and therefore less waste being rejected due to contamination of loads. However, collecting waste in this way would itself involve increased costs, as it would mean collecting two containers (the existing blue bin and possibly a bag or additional bin) in new vehicles that store the collected waste separately.

As the responsibility for collecting waste is also shared with Staffordshire County Council, any changes would depend on splitting the additional costs fairly with the county authority.

Cllr Daniel Cook, Tamworth Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Waste, said: “This isn’t a straight forward issue and ultimately this is about doing the right thing financially, and more importantly, environmentally.

“Asking people to separate out their card and paper is the preferred solution to the issues we are facing and this should mean more of our waste is recycled as a result of less contamination of the paper and card than we get through the current system. This would reduce the costs of disposing of that waste.

“Stafford and Newcastle already successfully collect their recycled waste in this way and we know others are looking to make the switch, but there is a bit more work to do to get this right for our residents. It is also pending an agreement being reached with Staffordshire County Council.

“We will keep residents updated as these plans progress in the coming months.”

Members of the public can view the associated documents to last night’s Cabinet meeting on the Tamworth Borough Council website, where the minutes will also be available in the near future.