Basingstoke council to start kerbside glass collecting

BASINGSTOKE borough council is set to introduce a new recycling service.

The council will start collecting glass jars and bottles from residents’ homes from next month.

Hatch Warren, Kingsclere, Kings Furlong, Old Basing and parts of Winklebury and Rooksdown will be the first to receive the kerbside service.

These areas will be taking part in a trial run before the council rolls out the remaining phases of the scheme in April and June next year.

Borough council cabinet member for the environment Elaine Still said the scheme was made possible following savings by the council.

She said: “We are keen to encourage our residents to recycle all they can. We’ve made around £1million in savings on the waste collection contract year on year.

“This means we have been able to invest some of the savings back into making it easier for residents to recycle by offering kerbside glass collections as another service.

“By introducing this in a few areas first, we can learn lessons about how we can make it as successful as possible before we roll it out across the borough.”

The scheme will cost the taxpayer £323,000 to run each year, and will require a one-off £353,000 capital investment.

Each household will be provided with a 40L plastic box for their glass which will be collected every fortnight.

But Labour group councillor Paul Harvey criticised the new service, saying it would be better to invest in more bottle banks.

He argued that by letting residents colour sort glass at banks, the council saves cash and gets more money selling the glass on.

Currently, clear glass fetches £16.50 per tonne, whereas mixed glass just £9 per tonne.

“What the council are proposing is not a good policy for collecting glass. We should be investing more in bottle banks – it's a more cost-effective method of collecting glass.”

Basingstoke is the worst performing local authority for  recycling, according to Hampshire County Council.

Only 23.37 per cent of waste is recycled in the borough, while Eastleigh recycles 41.14 per cent of its rubbish.

But Winklebury Conservative councillor Robert Donnell said kerbside glass collections would help boost these rates.

He said: “It will make it easier for residents to recycle. Not everybody wants to go to a bottle bank to sort their glass.”