The council says it will save around 220 tonnes of carbon emissions per year by changing collection routes and introducing larger recycling bins, while keeping residual collections fortnightly.
Going forward, the council says it will also explore a mixture of waste collection vehicle options to help reduce emissions and “help tackle our climate change emergency”.
This includes a mixture of hybrid vehicles, fully electric vehicles and “the most carbon efficient diesel vehicles that are available with a view to repower these as the technology and infrastructure allows”.
The council runs an in-house service through its LATCO firm, Cheshire West Recycling, and serves around 345,000 residents. It recorded a 56.4% recycling rate in 2019/20.
Charges
To help fund the changes, the council will introduce a charge for garden waste collections, and suspend them over the festive period.
It is anticipated that the new routes and rounds will be introduced from Monday 11 October.
“It is standard practice for waste and recycling collections services to periodically review their rounds to ensure they are maximising resources” – Rob Edmondson, Cheshire West Recycling
Cheshire West Recycling managing director Rob Edmondson said: “The increase in demand means we have had to rebalance the collection rounds to provide a better value for money and more efficient service. It means we can reduce the number of collection rounds, which in turn results in reducing costs and will have a beneficial effect on the environment.
“It is standard practice for waste and recycling collections services to periodically review their rounds to ensure they are maximising resources. It will also support the long term changes to the service introduced through the new Waste Management Strategy.”
Mr Edmondson added: “We would like to thank all our customers in advance for continuing to work with us to help create the best collection service we can.”
Strategy
Last month, Cheshire West and Chester Full Council approved plans for its waste management strategy, which looks to encourage residents to reduce the amount of waste the borough produces and to recycle more.
The changes include the introduction of larger capacity recycling bins, a charge for garden waste collections, while food waste collections will continue to be weekly.
Householders in the borough affected by the changes will be notified by a tag fixed to their bins.
‘Ambitions’
Cheshire West and Chester council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, highways and strategic transport, Cllr Karen Shore, added: “The transformation of the waste and recycling collections in Cheshire West and Chester will provide us with a modern service that will help us to meet the challenges we face both in terms of reducing costs and in supporting our ambitions around climate change.
“There will be several changes to the waste and recycling service over the coming months that will transform the service. We want people to embrace these changes. We will continue to listen to our residents throughout this process and keep them updated on any developments.”
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