I recently highlighted how disappointing it is that under Labour, Crawley Borough Council has the lowest recycling rate out of all seven district and borough council in West Sussex. The seven local councils within the county are the waste collection authorities and West Sussex County Council is the waste disposal authority.
I am however delighted to see that West Sussex County Council are working in partnership with district and borough councils across the county in a new campaign to help make recycling easier for people living in flats and shared properties. There does tend to be more problems with recycling in these properties as it only takes one household in a block of flats to be putting the wrong items in a communal recycling bin for the entire load to be contaminated, making it unable to be recycled.
This year nearly 8,000 residents of West Sussex living in flats and shared houses will receive new communal recycling bins and information packs in order to encourage more recycling. As we have the biggest problem, the initiative started here in Crawley last week and will run for five weeks. It will then move around the county before returning to Crawley later in the year. The information packs include a free reusable bag to collect your recycling waste in your home, before emptying into the recycling bins. These are being delivered to residents by partnerships teams from West Sussex County Council and Crawley Borough Council.
During these five weeks, teams are visiting flats and shared houses around Crawley and will be handing out the packs and giving out information on recycling. They are keen to engage so please do approach them if you see the teams out and about and ask them absolutely anything about improving recycling.
The chances are that if you are reading this, you are probably already conscientious about recycling, but I am always keen to make a plug for the first ‘two Rs’ from the ‘three Rs’ of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. For information on waste reduction search online for “West Sussex waste prevention” and https://www.wastepreventionwestsussex.co.uk will appear first.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
6th June 2018