Newport City Council Green Waste Scheme
posted in Case Studies |Newport City Council extends green waste collection scheme 20,000 households no longer green with envy
Newport City Council’s green waste collection scheme was offered to a total 20,000 residences during the spring of 2004. Phase One of the green waste collection extension would see almost half of Newport’s streets offered an orange-lidded bin for green waste. The completion of Phase Three by late summer would see a combined total of over 50,000 residences, with a garden and storage space, offered the bin.
Residents on the trial diverted nearly 250 tonnes of garden waste away from the landfill site, equivalent in weight to 50 elephants!
As part of Newport’s commitment to reducing the waste to landfill by 2010, the last phase of the green waste collection trial commenced across ten thousand homes in April 2003. Five thousand homes were offered orange bags to fill with green waste, another five thousand were offered orange-lidded bins the same size as the regular refuse bin. During the trial the council collected seven tonnes of green waste per week including branches, shrubs, grass and leaves from the orange-lidded bins, compared to four tonnes of green waste collected per week from the orange bags. A questionnaire completed by the trial participants revealed an overwhelming preference to use the orange-lidded bins:
- 97% of those on the green waste bin collection trial said they wanted to continue using the bins
- 63% of those on the bag scheme preferred to continue using the bags
Due to the success of the orange-lidded bins, by mid-April, Newport had replaced the orange bags with the orange lidded bins and provided the green waste bins and collection service to residences who signed up to the scheme. By the end of the summer, Newport City Council had completed all phases of the green waste collection scheme.
Graham Dally, the then Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainable Development said, “The green waste scheme is vital to reducing the waste going to the landfill site and has proved very popular with residents on the trial. We would like all the households who receive the registration form, to sign up to the scheme and join the others doing their bit for a greener Newport. Special thanks must go to the households who have already put 250 tonnes of their garden waste to better use, by making compost rather than sending it to landfill.”
Newport’s garden waste scheme hits 20,000
Over 20,000 people have now signed up to Newport City Council’s garden waste scheme, after registration for the third phase of the scheme rollout closed on 25th June 2004. Phase Three of the scheme saw 6,600 people sign up for orange-topped bins for garden waste, out of around 10,000 homes offered, a huge 65% response rate. The Council has already started the fortnightly
collection of garden waste from 14,000 houses with the garden waste bins.
Ron Jones, Newport’s new Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainable Development said, “As a pioneering council we knew this scheme would be popular because of its simplicity for the householder and the environmental benefits, but the response from Newport residents has exceeded our expectations. We have channelled resources into rolling out this scheme as quickly as we can, though we cannot deliver bins to everyone as quickly as we would like, due to the high demand for the limited bins. The residents on the scheme have already provided 550 tonnes of garden waste for composting since April and we are keen to collect more as soon as we can add more people to the scheme, though this may not be until next year for some people.”