Better recycling on way - boost for terraced streets!

12.18.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Jun 2008

People living in terraced houses in Liverpool where the alleyways are too small for a wheelie bin are to get a better recycling collection service later this year. Details of this, and other improvements are given below in this extract from the Liverpool City Council website.

New steps are being taken to improve Liverpool's waste and recycling service and at the same time, keep costs down.

The city council intends to award Enterprise-Liverpool with a seven year multi-million pound contract to carry out Liverpool's kerbside collection services.

Household waste contained in purple bins will continue to be collected weekly. However, residents will see improvements being made in the first 18 months, including:

The introduction of bank holiday collections which mean residents' collections will be unaffected throughout the year (excluding Christmas and New Year's Day).

A weekly blue box recycling service is to be rolled out to 31,000 terraced properties.

New technology in refuse vehicles will provide real time information, so any enquiries about the collection service will be answered immediately.

An enhanced scheme to passageways at the rear of terraced houses on the same day as their household bins are collected will make sure the areas remain clean.

An improved trade waste service will encourage businesses to dispose of their waste effectively and efficiently.

Enterprise-Liverpool start collections in November 2008.

Liverpool city council's executive member for the environment, Councillor Berni Turner said: "Liverpool's waste and recycling service has been very successful so far, but we want to make more improvements to improve quality and reliability.

"This new contract allows us to continue the current service and improve important elements of it. Having bank holiday collections will make a huge difference and will eliminate any confusion people may have about the dates they need to put their rubbish out at holiday times.

"It's also important for residents that their collection day for both waste and recycling will remain the same, and unlike many other councils we are keeping weekly waste collections.

"I'm confident the changes will be extremely beneficial for the city, and the improvements to the recycling service will help us on our way to becoming one of the greenest cities in the UK."

Enterprise-Liverpool take over the contract from Veolia (formerly known as Onyx), who have held the contract since 1991. All the staff currently working for Veolia (around 300) will be transferred to the new contractor, with no job losses.