Helston waste and recycling: Massive rise in recycling during lockdown

Households in Cornwall have been recycling more than ever since the coronavirus lockdown.

Rob Nolan, the Cornwall Council Cabinet member responsible for waste and recycling, said there had been a 22% increase in recycling being put out for collection in recent months.

He explained that the spike had largely been caused by a huge increase in the amount of cardboard being put out for collection due to people ordering more goods online during the coronavirus crisis and lockdown.

Cllr Nolan gave details of the rise in recycling to a meeting of Truro City Council last night when he announced that Cornwall Council would be signing its new waste contract this week.

The contract has been long delayed due to changes having to be made on what services the council could afford as well as the coronavirus.

Cornwall Council had originally wanted to introduce a new weekly recycling collection alongside a new weekly food waste service and have black bag waste collected fortnightly.

However, budget constraints meant that the council had to instead seek a company which would collect both recycling and black bag waste fortnightly along with a weekly food waste collection.

While the new contract will start once it is signed this week, changes to the kerbside collection services are not set to be introduced until 2021.

Cllr Nolan told the city council that it "will be at least a year" until the new collections services start.

However, he said that new rubbish and recycling collection vehicles will start to be used.

He said:

"Straight away you will see the new lorries on the road. They have more capacity for recycling, particularly cardboard.

"The existing lorries do not have much space and are not always able to collect everything."

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