Borough Council plan to make changes to their Bring sites

The borough council is planning to make changes to bring sites across Charnwood to remove a duplication of service and save taxpayers around £20,000 a year.

The Council is removing 79 glass and aluminium recycling banks at a number of locations as they are no longer necessary as the materials can be recycled in the Council’s kerbside scheme.

The plans do not affect charity recycling banks which often collect clothing, shoes and books or the household waste and recycling sites operated by the county council.

Matt Bradford, head of cleansing at the borough council, said: “The reality of the situation is these recycling banks simply duplicate the kerbside recycling service so we are confident there will not be any impact on recycling levels in the borough.

“To retain them means using taxpayers’ money to pay for something we do not really need and they were introduced 20 or 30 years ago when council recycling services were much more limited.

“We will make the savings on collecting the materials, some of which have no recyclable value, and on cleaning the sites.

“We also have to remember this decision has been made against a backdrop of the borough council receiving far less funding to run the recycling service. We now receive £540,000 a year less in funding from Leicestershire County Council to operate the recycling service than we did last year which means we need to run a very lean and efficient service.”

There are 70 bring sites across the borough:

• eight are owned by the council, which are mainly car parks, and seven glass and four aluminium can banks will be removed. Six textile banks will remain.
• there are a further 62 sites which are owned by third parties, such as parish councils, and 49 glass and 19 aluminium can recycling banks will be removed. It will leave 12 glass, one aluminium and 12 textile recycling banks plus a small number of other charity banks.
• the Council also organises the collection of a further three paper/cardboard banks on private land with a private operator. The Council anticipates the banks will continue under new arrangements between the landowner and the private operator.

The move will leave 34 bring sites with recycling banks for textiles, glass and some other items.

Residents can request bags to put extra recycling in if necessary.

The banks will be removed in August or September and the Council will be using the media, social media, its website and notices on the sites to inform residents about the changes.