Council ‘smashes’ glass target with eight-weekly collections

In April 2021, the local authority rolled out a separate kerbside glass collection for residents using a140 litre black wheeled bin, collected and emptied every eight weeks.

In its first month of service, the council collected 2,328 tonnes of material, a figure which it had aimed to reach after two-three years of running the service. This comes after it said 43,000 homes took delivery of a glass bin.

Cllr Andy Burgin, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Leisure, said: “This is a really fabulous achievement especially as the effects of the pandemic have caused disruption to waste and recycling services over the past year”.

Service

Residents were allowed to opt-out of receiving the 140 litre black bins, and new properties are also able to choose to not have the service before the bins are delivered.

If a resident decides they no longer want a bin they are allowed to return them for a collection fee. Those residents who prefer not to have a wheeled bin for glass are encouraged to take glass to a recycling centre or bottle bank to ensure it gets recycled.

All glass collected in Mansfield is processed at URM’s factory in West Yorkshire, which uses “state-of-the-art technology so that any piece of glass bigger than a 20p piece can be identified and colour separated”, (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mansfield council pointed to a report from the European glass federation, FEVE, which estimated that every tonne of recycled glass produces 670 fewer kilograms of carbon dioxide than new glass.

This council said using this, it has saved over 1,500 tonnes of CO² than if the glass had gone to landfill or been incinerated and had to be replaced with new glass.

Carbon

Cllr Burgin added: “It is great to see the council’s Cleaner and Greener strategy, which includes reducing our carbon emissions, is now starting to deliver results.

“We hope to collect even more glass in the future as there are still some households in the district which are putting their glass in green household waste bins instead of the glass bins.”

[updated 19 May]