Stay green in Teignbridge – despite Devon County Council's recycling centre closures and charges

By PRSD, on Thursday, March 31, 2011

Copyright Robin Stott and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Recycling Centre at Newton Abbot: Buckfastleigh and Dawlish recycling centres set to close, with charges coming at the remaining recycling centres in Devon

Teignbridge District Council is working hard to help residents stay green despite changes being made to the areas recycling facilities this week by Devon County Council.

The county council is closing its recycling centres at Dawlish and Buckfastleigh on Thursday, March as a result of the cuts to its waste disposal budget. From Friday, April 1 they will also be introducing charges for the disposal of certain types of non-household waste (specifically rubble, soil, plasterboard, asbestos and tyres) taken to their remaining recycling centres, like the one on Brunel Industrial Estate in Newton Abbot.

In light of this Teignbridge District Council is reminding residents about a number of initiatives they have recently launched to improve access to recycling facilities in the area and are urging residents to keep recycling their waste as much possible.

A special ‘Recycling Roadshow’ is being held in Dawlish on Friday, April 1 at The Piazza by The Lawn from 10am to 2.30pm to tell residents about other local recycling facilities available to them and give advice on how best to continue to recycle their general household waste, particularly plastic waste.

Teignbridge has also introduced 10 new plastic collection bins across the district, including one at Victoria Woodholme Car Park in Buckfastleigh, another in the neighbouring town of Ashburton at Kingsbridge Lane Car Park, and two in Dawlish at Barton Hill and Sandy Lane, so residents can now conveniently recycle all rigid plastic packaging such as yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, CD cases and plastic flower pots.

Residents can already recycle a huge range of products via their fortnightly kerbside collections including paper and thin card, cloudy plastic milk bottles, food and garden waste, glass bottles and jars, tins and cans, newspapers and magazines, mobile phones, printer cartridge, empty aerosols and batteries. The council has recently expanded the collections to include mixed plastic bottles and textiles.

In addition to this Dawlish has been added to the list of towns visited by the district’s Rural Skip. The mobile service visits around 30 different villages and towns across the district collecting bulky household items from people in rural areas who need to travel long distances to reach their nearest recycling centre. Each location is visited once per year – in Dawlish the service has been provisionally arranged to operate from Sandy Lane Car Park on Saturday 18 June between 10am and 4pm.

Teignbridge District Council is exploring the possibility of sharing the cost of providing the Rural Skip Service in Buckfastleigh with other local organisations. The nearest service currently operates on November 5 from Kingsbridge Lane Car Park in Ashburton, but if shared funding could be secured the service would be able to visit both Ashburton and Buckfastleigh each year.

Chris Braines, waste management officer at Teignbridge District Council, said: “Teignbridge is proud to have one of the best recycling rates in the UK and we are working hard to help minimise the impact the closure of two of the areas recycling centres by Devon County Council will have on our residents.

“As well as providing additional recycling facilities, we are making sure our residents know about our services and are offering them advice on how best to continue to recycle their general household waste.

“Events like our ‘Recycling Roadshows’ are a great way to let people know what recycling facilities we provide, information which is particularly valuable at this time.

“Our refuse and recycling team work closely with schools and community groups to promote recycling in Teignbridge with interactive talks and activities proving an excellent opportunity for people to discover what happens to all of the recyclable material that is collected from homes in the district and teach them about the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling.

“I hope that residents will continue to help us improve our recycling figures by making good use of the facilities we offer, including the convenient new mixed plastic collection banks, and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.”