Wokingham

A milestone in green waste collection was celebrated by Wokingham District Council this week as it passed the 1,000 tonne mark of garden waste picked up for recycling and composting.

And, on Monday March 20, Wokingham council chairman Cllr Iain Brown joined pupils from Oaklands Infant School in Crowthorne to mark this achievement and learn about how the council’s green waste scheme works.

Wokingham district council was set a very tough target of recycling and composting over 30% of the district’s household waste by the end of this month (March). Although the district’s residents already performed well in terms of recycling, the council had to look at ways it could increase the amount of waste that people recycled or composted. In April 2005 the council launched its green waste scheme, allowing residents in the participating areas of the district to put green garden waste out for collection every fortnight on the alternate week to their black box recycling collection.

And now over 1,000 tonnes of green waste have been collected and sent for composting, helping to drive Wokingham district towards its target. To mark the occasion, waste and recycling manager Peter Baveystock joined council chairman Cllr Iain Brown on a visit to Oaklands Infant School, along with waste contractors SITA, to demonstrate how the green waste scheme works.

Peter said: “Younger people are always curious about how our waste schemes work, what happens to their rubbish after they’ve left it out for collection and how rubbish can be reused and recycled, and research shows that if you can get children interested in recycling and composting they tend to bring their parents along with them.

“I carry out a number of visits to schools across the district, explaining how the council’s kerbside recycling scheme works. On my last visit to Oaklands Infant School the children were extremely enthusiastic and I could think of no one better to help us celebrate collecting over 1,000 tonnes of green waste.”

Wokingham Cllr Iain Brown said: “We have to thank our residents for helping us to achieve this milestone. Every garden waste bag collected saves precious landfill space and is good news for the future of our district and the country as a whole.

“The pupils at Oaklands Infant School were extremely interested in the whole process of recycling and composting and were especially curious about how the waste collection lorry works. I hope that they will encourage their parents to join the scheme and help us grow our composting figures even further.”

The green waste scheme is operating in parts of Arborfield, Barkham, Earley, Finchampstead, Twyford, Winnersh, Wokingham, Wokingham Without and Woodley. Households in other areas where the scheme is not operating can still have one bag of garden waste per property collected free of charge each week. Alternatively, they can purchase blue garden waste sacks from the council at a cost of £1 each. Residents can also home compost or take their garden waste to the civic amenity sites in Bracknell and Reading.

Anyone with questions on the green waste scheme should call (0118) 974 6307.

Wokingham District Council