PRESS RELEASE
Issued by:
Councillor Gill Gardiner
Cabinet Member for Environment
Date of Issue: January 30th 2009
Contact numbers:
0151 625 2738
07803 065578

Rising ‘Stars' for Wirral's recycling

The Government has awarded Wirral a ‘3-star' rating for its environmental performance and named Wirral as ‘the most improved metropolitan borough' for recycling in 2007/08.

Councillor Gill Gardiner , Cabinet Member for Environment, commented,

“The star rating from DEFRA - up from 2 to 3 stars - recognises the huge improvements we've made from what was a very low base.

“From around a 14% recycling rate in 2007 to a rate of 35% in 2008-09 is a tremendous achievement, but there is still more to do.

“The garden waste collection will shortly be expanded, and with a new local delivery point for this waste, we will also be able to compost it locally and increase our own composting rates.

“And there's good news for residents in flats with shared bin facilities who haven't been able to recycle up to now.

“The roll-out of recycling facilities to all multi-occupancy buildings will be complete by April 09, which means the Council will be on track to meet its 2010 obligation to make recycling available to every resident in the Borough.

“Residents will also be able to recycle while they're out shopping. Street recycling bins will soon appear in Wirral's main shopping areas in Liscard, Birkenhead , Bromborough and Heswall.

“Recycling in schools has also taken off, with 105 schools out of 133 now signed up to the scheme with grey recycling bins in classrooms, and we're about to roll out a similar scheme in Council buildings.

“All in all, there will be opportunities for everyone to keep their waste out of expensive landfill sites.”

The accolades for Wirral's performance were reported at a meeting of one of Wirral's ‘watchdog' committees, the Environment Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee also heard of proposals to recycle the waste from the Council's mechanical street sweepers, up to 80% of this waste can be recycled; it is predicted that Wirral could gain as much as 3% extra recycling as a result of diverting sweepings.

To see the full details of Wirral's Streetscene and Recycling performance of the Environment Scrutiny Committee agenda click here (see Items 5 and 6).