Getting to grips with Margate's waste
Residents in Margate and Cliftonville West have joined forces
with Thanet District Council to help improve the cleanliness and
appearance of their area.
Twelve residents have volunteered to become Street Monitors in a
new scheme that’s been organised by the Council’s Waste and
Recycling team. Street Monitors will help by reporting waste and
cleanliness problems, as well as advising and promoting a new
recycling scheme due to start in January. The new weekly recycling
collection will target paper, card, tins, cans, tin foil and
plastic bottles. Residents will receive information packs with
their first supply of free recycled sacks and the Street Monitors
will play a central role in ensuring a smooth introduction of the
service.
Volunteers were mainly recruited from local resident
associations, groups and street schemes. They met for the first
time on a training day, which included a visit to the recycling
centre at Hersden, which sorts and handles all the recyclable
material collected in Thanet.
The group saw the huge amount of recyclable material collected
through the kerbside collection and learnt how it was sorted for
recycling. They also saw at first hand the difficulties of sorting
material contaminated with glass, plastic bags and food trays. The
day finished with a discussion with officers from the Council about
waste, recycling, cleanliness and enforcement issues.
Street Monitor Marie Johnston said: “I was surprised at how much
material was collected for recycling, but also concerned at the
amount of contamination. Hopefully now we have seen the
difficulties caused by contamination, we will be able to help this
not happening to our scheme.”
Street Monitor Jenny Cranston said: “It was a good opportunity
for us to get together as a group and talk through cleanliness and
waste in our specific areas. One of the reasons I wanted to get
involved with the Street Monitor scheme was to help people realise
that it is their responsibility to properly contain their waste and
that if everyone did the whole area would be a cleaner, nicer place
for us all”.
The Street Monitoring project has been funded by the Safer
Stronger Communities Fund, which works to improve public spaces and
the quality of life for local people living in Cliftonville West,
Margate Central and the green space of Dane Park.
If you live in the Margate Central or Cliftonville West and want
to volunteer to become a Street Monitor please contact Fiona
Jarrett on 01843 577827 or e-mail fiona.jarrett@thanet.gov.uk
ENDS