IMPROVED changes are being made to Gravesham Borough Council’s waste and recycling service.
From June, homes in the borough that already have a recycling wheelie bin will be receiving a new wheelie bin for general waste, to replace the current black sacks.
Collection days are not changing but the frequency is. All homes in Gravesham will move to alternate weekly collections from June. This means your recycling will be collected one week and your general waste the next. Food waste will still be collected weekly.
The first pieces of literature will start going out in early March and the bins will start being delivered from Monday 5 June. It is expected to take until the end of June for all households to receive their bins.
Residents should start using their bins as soon as they receive them.
Cabinet Member for Community Services, Cllr Sandra Garside, said: “This roll out forms phase two of our waste and recycling project and things are being done in the same way as they were in 2014 when the recycling bins were introduced to homes. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible to understand so everyone on the scheme will get an information booklet and calendar when the bin is delivered and it will tell them what week they need to put each bin out on.”
The day of the week that residents currently put their bin out is not changing and no extra side waste will be collected. If you have extra rubbish it’ll need to be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre at Pepperhill. Any glass items will also need to be taken to the Pepperhill tip or to bottle banks in local supermarkets.
Cllr Garside added: “We’d really like to thank our residents for their help in the way phase one was implemented. We’re sure phase two will be just as smooth and we’d like to thank residents in advance for their support in doing this.
“The introduction of this new general waste bin will allow our recycling rate to continue to rise too. Since 2014, when the recycling wheelie bins were introduced, it’s risen from 24 per cent to 35 per cent and we hope we’ll be able to improve this figure further.
“The bins will also help keep our streets cleaner because we’ll have less black sacks split by animals, so again we thank everyone for getting on board with this part of the roll out and keeping our streets and neighbourhoods tidy.”
Those households that didn’t get a recycling bin last time won’t automatically receive a waste bin this time, however if residents did want to ‘opt in’ for the service you will soon be able to do this online.
Flats, which are on communal bin systems, won’t be affected by the changes.
You can find out more about the service on our website www.gravesham.gov.uk/waste
Ends
Thank you,
Karen Jeal
Communications Manager
Gravesham Borough Council
