WEST Dorset will have to wait until summer 2015 for full kerbside recycling – and then only if the Broomhills waste site is furnished.

That was the news from Steve Burdis, director of the Dorset Waste Partnership when he gave a presentation about the Recycle for Dorset project to Bridport town councillors last week.

The service to 41,000 properties in Purbeck and Dorchester started this week but 18,000 to 20,000 properties in Bridport and Lyme Regis will have to wait for more than a year.

Weymouth and Sherborne residents should get the new service in October this year.

The Recycle Dorset scheme started in 2011 and covers seven Dorset councils. It replaces 12 different collection services in six authorities.

Mr Burdis said the service had made £1.4million savings in its first year and was on target to make £2million by 2015. The bins occupy a 6ft by 3ft footprint.

He said: “There will be a new weekly food waste collection, fortnightly recycling, far better than we have now, a fortnightly rubbish and an optional fortnightly charged garden waste service.”

The wheelie bins for rubbish have a 240-litre capacity and for recycling, which will include plastic for the first time, a 140-litre capacity.

The cooked and uncooked food waste can be put in a lockable bin and there is a smaller kitchen caddy.

Mr Burdis added: “The food waste goes to an anaerobic digester in Piddlehinton.

“It is a fantastic plant – one of the best in the country – every bit of material goes on local farmland to grow crops and literally on the other side of the road the electricity and heat from the plant is going into Mole Valley farmers’ local co-op for production of animal feed.”

The garden waste service costs £40 a year for 25 collections.

Mr Burdis said: “There are 28,000 people signed up who are very happy with it and it has proved extremely popular.

“Everybody who uses it thinks it is absolutely fantastic.”

For large families there is the possibility for more capacity but unless there is a genuine lack of space for the wheelie bins their use will be mandatory – no waste will be picked up any other way, said Mr Burdis.

He added: “Where there is no genuinely no space for wheeled bins we would issue sacks and boxes.”

Those properties will be inspected before the non-standard service is agreed and home owners will need to apply either online or by phone.

Wet ground delays site works
WORK on the Broomhills site is being slowed down by wet ground and tree felling scheduled for last week could not start.

Steve Burdis, director of Dorset Waste Partnership, told Bridport Town Councillors on the Environment and Social Wellbeing committee that the timetable was set out but subject to weather conditions.
Mr Burdis said: “The ground is pretty sodden.

“One of the first things we need to do is dig deep ditches to put drainage in and if you dig a deep hole in some places the first thing that is going to happen is it fills with water.

“That doesn’t affect the running of the site and wouldn’t do if it was already there.

Tree felling was supposed to start last week to avoid the nesting season but it hadn’t started, he said.

By March 7 the purchase of the land should be completed and the planning application on the South Street site determined.

By March 31 it is hoped to have completed the tree felling and site offices will begin to go up, he said. April 1 should see the start of stripping off top soil and below ground drainage.
The alterations and traffic lights on the junction are planned for September.