With just a few weeks to go before the third phase of the wheeled bin scheme is rolled-out across Worcester, the City Council has said that rocketing recycling rates are proof that the system is working well.

In the two years since the Council introduced wheeled bins to the Faithful City recycling rates have gone up from 16% to 30%, exceeding the current government’s target for Worcester of 24%. But with the New Waste Strategy for England 2007 pushing up the target to 40%, the City Council is keen to let residents know there can be no let up in the drive to throw away less and recycle more.

Mike Harrison, Head of Cleaner and Greener at Worcester City Council said that people need to start thinking differently about refuse: “We need to move away from the idea of waste and instead think of resources. There is still a lot of material, being discarded that can be put to other uses. It’s been very encouraging that the public have displayed a willingness to adopt a more sustainable approach to their refuse and it is apparent that the vast majority of residents have not had any problems with the wheeled bin system.”

The AWC scheme was introduced to Worcester in 2005 with cross-party support after a councillors working party looked at various schemes and concluded that this was the best method for providing value for money and providing the highest probability of meeting the national recycling targets.

John Bond, Environmental Protection Officer at the City Council added: “The combined effect of alternate weekly collections and wheeled bins has clearly helped push up recycling rates in the city. But not only that, the amount of waste being thrown away into landfill has been reduced by 3,830 tonnes per year since the scheme was introduced which is a reduction of 3.64% to date compared to a national trend of waste increasing by around 3% so together, Council and residents, must be doing something right.”