Published: 30/11/2018
COPELAND Council is encouraging residents to make an early start with their festive recycling.
Copeland’s Community Services Manager, Janice Carrol, said: "Many people will be well ahead with their Christmas shopping, many having ordered gifts online during Black Friday or Cyber Monday events. So it's a good time to recycle the large amounts of cardboard created by deliveries."
The council introduced an improved kerbside recycling service in April of this year. It now includes card and plastic, as well as glass, paper and metal.
Mrs Carrol said: “If residents get gifts delivered to their houses it can create a lot of cardboard packaging, so we're encouraging people to put it all in their white kerbside recycling bag. Remember, you can put out as much cardboard as you like, even if it doesn’t all fit in your bag. As long as it is secure and won’t blow away, we are happy to collect it. Even the largest boxes can be flattened and left with your recycling.
“Using our kerbside scheme for your cardboard saves a trip to one of out ‘bring’ sites, but it also means the card is guaranteed to be safely recycled. Unfortunately we recently had another bring site container set on fire in Egremont. We lost 250 kilos of cardboard, and the container was damaged too. If people have access to it, we'd ask them to use our kerbside service, and to let us or the police know if they see any suspicious behaviour near our recycling banks."
The council is expecting a significant increase in card recycling in the lead-up to Christmas, and is planning extra measures to make sure it can all be collected.
Mrs Carrol said: "This involves, at some busy times, using a second vehicle to collect card only. This means people's cardboard may be collected before or after the rest of their recycling. It may even go into a different type of vehicle, but we want to reassure people that it is still all going to be recycled. It just means we are ready to collect the extra during those busy periods.
“And we'd like to thank people you for flattening their card. Most people do this and it really helps our rounds move more quickly. The crew can put it straight in the vehicle and it takes up less space, so we don’t have to drop off as often.”
