RUBBISH RECYCLING?

WOKINGHAM.TODAY / THEWOKINGHAMPAPER Thursday, March 5, 2020 Shock after recycling and blue bag 'crushed together' in truck

EXCLUSIVE

By JESS WARREN jwarren@wokinghampaper.co.uk

AFTER dutifully separating his recycling and general waste, a Wokingham resident was shocked last week when he witnessed it all being crushed together into the back of a bin lorry.

Paul Bartram, who lives on Ashridge Road said: “I saw the bin men dump all my carefully separated cardboard, plastic, tins and blue bags into one wheelie bin and use the lorry to pick it up and dump the lot in one go.

“I watched the crusher in the lorry smash the lot together splitting the blue bags with the rest.”

The incident happened on Thursday, February 27. Mr Bartram explained that he has only lived in Wokingham for three weeks, and although he is not familiar with waste collection routines, was amazed to see the rubbish being combined together in such a way.

“Maybe the lorry had a fault and it was a one off, but I would love to know if I'm wasting my time sorting rubbish for no reason, when I can just stick it all in a blue bag if they crush it all together,” he added.

Shaun Howe, Wokingham contract manager for Veolia UK, said: “At Veolia we are committed to the environment and are grateful to our diligent and efficient residents who help us to improve Wokingham Borough Council's recycling rates.

“All our operatives are trained to take the material to the back of the vehicle where they are separated and then taken off for further processing.

“However all our vehicles have CCTV to monitor consistent and correct procedures are carried out so we will look into the incident further."

Cllr Michael Firmager, deputy executive member for environment and leisure, said: “Wokingham Borough Council declared a climate emergency in July 2019 and is committed to playing as full a role as possible in achieving a carbon neutral borough by 2030.

“Increasing recycling rates across the borough is an important part of reducing our carbon footprint.

“We have been working hard, along with our partners at Veolia, on this, as our introduction of food waste recycling last year shows. We will work with Veolia on looking into this complaint, as we do take our recycling commitment seriously.”

Leader of the borough council, Cllr John Halsall, said: “Across the borough, we have a recycling rate in the mid50s.

“We’re really pleased, but not delighted. In North Wales, recycling rates are in their 70s.

“We shall be aiming for 100% recycled, with zero waste sent to landfill. So, we have commissioned a study to tell us what we need to do to get there, what changes we need to make. This also means the wet waste problem, and we’re looking to residents to help us.”