Increased resources to support the council’s waste and recycling service are now in place.
This follows disruption to collections for some residents since the introduction of new recycling services for 27,000 Thanet households. These changes were introduced in response to new national Simpler Recycling requirements by the government.
Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Coastal Services, Cllr Steve Albon, said:
“I’d like to thank residents for their patience following the introduction of new Simpler Recycling collections. An operational change of this scale is a big task and our crews are working incredibly hard to get the job done.
“We really value the support of our residents, many of whom have participated in the scheme and are now starting to recycle more. We’ve already seen a 59% increase in our food recycling compared to last year and since the changes were made our overall recycling rate is up by 4.5%. We hope to see this increase further as more households take part.
“In recent weeks, collections have been disrupted for some residents while we continue to work through the issues arising from these service changes. This has been exacerbated by the spells of extreme heat too.
“We apologise to all the residents who have been affected. Addressing these issues is our immediate priority and we are committed to restoring the service levels our residents expect as quickly as possible.
“A number of steps including additional collection vehicles, a review of the rounds and further direct communication to residents are in place to tackle this. Resources have now been increased to support this crucial service. A full review of the service will be carried out to understand if there are further long term improvements we can make. I am receiving regular updates and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
Steps to improve the service include:
- Additional round capacity: Two new refuse collection vehicles have been added to the council’s fleet which will help create additional capacity for both household waste and food recycling. This includes one 26 tonne vehicle to collect general household waste and one smaller vehicle to collect food waste. This will be in place for a six month period to give time for a service review to be undertaken which will generate any longer term actions that are required. A ‘recall round’ which was added at the beginning of June remains in place to focus solely on supporting missed collections. This means that when crews start their shift each morning they can focus on the collections scheduled for that day, rather than having to complete recalls from the previous day.
- Route optimisation: Waste collection routes will be reviewed to increase the efficiency of the rounds and will continue to be kept under review.
- Engagement with residents: Further direct communications will be issued to households on the new scheme. This will include targeted door-to-door engagement in key locations.
- Councillor liaison: Regular updates will continue to be provided to Councillors and there will be further engagement with the town and parish councils.
- Service review: An independent review of the waste and recycling service will be carried out to analyse the operation of the service and identify areas for improvement.
