Extension of kerbside recycling into Moseley

At the moment 10,000 household are taking part in a pilot scheme to iron out various issues with the running of the kerbside collection. Central Kings Heath was included in this pilot scheme where plastics, cans, bottles and paper was collected from the door step

The roll out of the kerbside collection scheme is being funded from a £5million increase in the waste management budget in the new financial year.

A large chunk of the £5million will be spent increasing the kerbside collection to 100,000 households in south Birmingham. The plan is that compost will be collected one week and recycling materials the following week – they will be collected on the same day as normal refuse.

The roll out will be done in phases since new trucks will have to be purchased.

Initially, the pilot area will be doubled in size – there is the capacity to do this, since half the pilot area is having recycling materials collected on a weekly basis. It was found that overall, there was no difference in amounts collected whether material was collected weekly or fortnightly. Collecting weekly cost twice as much as collecting fortnightly.

Which area will be covered in this initial expansion will be announced in the coming week.

The composting scheme will then roll out to all 100,000 households – this is because the summer months provide the highest demand for compost.

When we reach October, the roll out of material recycling will begin.

The recycling scheme will not include the inner city areas in this financial year, since previous experience shows very few recycling items are collected.

The remainder of the £5million will be used to provide regular 10 weekly clear-ups to every Ward. Each Ward will be provided with a crew to help tidy up the area – this could include removing dumped rubbish, graffiti, to washing the pavements in shopping centres. Local Councillors and Wardens will be consulted on what needs doing.