News MBC asking residents to step up for Recycle Week
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) is asking everyone to step up and do their bit as part of Recycle Week.
Led by the charity WRAP, Recycle Week takes part between 20 and 26 September and is a celebration of recycling. This year’s campaign ‘Step it Up’ is aimed at encouraging the public to recycle more, by demonstrating the benefits of recycling items from all around the home.
MBC Deputy Leader Jonathan Purle said:
“MBC’s waste team currently make 38,000 recycling collections every week, meaning an overall recycling rate of 55%. Our aim is to increase this to 60% and National Recycle Week gives us all a great opportunity to really think about increasing what we recycle and helping the environment.“These are challenging times for bin collections with the national shortage of HGV drivers. But we’re working really hard to ensure we keep the waste and recycling services going. We won’t shy away from moving resources around to make sure this happens.”
MBC Waste Manager Graham Gosden added:
“We make recycling as easy as possible by using the one bin approach, residents can put all types of dry mix recycling in one bin. National Recycling Week reminds us that there is always room to learn about recycling and how everyone can make the process more effective.“Emptying all the bottles and food containers before recycling, improves the quality of recycling delivered to the sorting depot.”
MBC’s Waste Team are also urging residents to think about what goes in their bin and to follow the 5 Steps to Recycling:
- Use the separate food collection service
- Stick to the dry material recycling list
- Make sure all bottles, cans and containers are empty
- No plastic bags or nappies in your recycling
- Use a separate garden bin or home compost your garden waste
MBC offers a specialist recycling information service, where they endeavour to answer most questions and queries. Anyone who would like to contact the team can email: recycling@maidstone.gov.uk