East Riding of Yorkshire Council has chosen Luxus, the UK's largest independent plastics recycling company to support its new scheme to introduce higher capacity blue bins to its kerbside collection service this autumn.
The council plans to exchange its smaller blue bins for larger, 240 litre bins to help its residents recycle as much as possible. The scheme will cover nearly all of East Riding's 149,000 households. The new blue bins will be able to take glass for the first time, a wider range of plastics and Tetra Pak cartons.
Luxus will be required to remove a total of 90 tonnes per month of the old exchanged blue bins through its closed loop recycling scheme known as 'Bin2Bin', until the programme is completed in January 2012.
This service includes the collection of the 'end-of-life' bins which on arrival at Luxus' plastics processing plant, are washed, shredded, granulated and melted. The resulting granulate is then mixed with additives and colours ready for sale to bin manufacturers. The council then receives a weight return ticket to claim land tax credits.
As the council has only limited capacity for storing the old bins, it will be critical that Luxus provides a prompt and reliable collection service, backed by its impressive plastics processing facility to close the recycling loop.
Peter Atterby, Managing Director, Luxus said: "We are delighted to be working with East Riding to offer a service that will help them meet their recycling targets.
"Having worked with local authorities since the mid 1980's, it has always been our aim to offer an effective revenue generating closed loop service for this growing market. Our 'Bin2Bin' scheme provides a sustainable purchasing option, lower waste costs and a reduction in the volume of waste going to landfill."
Andy Height, Project Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: "Our blue bin scheme has had a positive impact on recycling across East Riding. From 2010 to 2011 we collected over 13,500 tonnes of paper, cans and plastic bottles. With the introduction of our new high capacity bins for kerbside collection and Luxus' support, it will now be possible to collect glass and additional plastics, increasing our collections to over 21,000 tonnes annually."