Chance to bid for a share of £30,000 to help reduce waste in York

slothCommunity groups across York are being given the chance to bid for a share of £30,000 to support community projects that could help reduce waste.

The kinds of projects the fund will support includes:

  • Reducing waste from households e.g. reduce household waste going into the grey bin / helping to increase the amount of waste recycled
  • Promoting waste prevention e.g. encouraging reuse, repair and recycling of items / reducing food waste (in line with the Love Food Hate Waste campaign)
  • Reducing carbon emissions e.g. finding alternative options for composting garden waste for households with no collection / using lower carbon travel alternatives

Registered charities, not-for-profit organisations (including social enterprises), community or voluntary groups, schools, colleges or universities, residents associations and Parish Councils can all apply for funding. Projects can also include a partnership with a private sector organisation.

Cllr Andrew Waller, Executive Member for the Environment, said: “This fund is a great opportunity to help communities and groups reduce waste and encourage re-use. By providing the funding to enable them to get their campaigns off the ground, this will really help us to create a more sustainable and resilient One Planet York, and make York the “Greenest City in the North”. We encourage as many groups as possible to apply for this funding before 20 January.”

Groups can apply for any amount of funding between £1 and £5,000 but if there are a large number of good applications then awards may be reduced proportionately.

The closing date for applications is 5pm Friday 20 January 2017.

To request an application form please email ycc@york.gov.uk with the subject ‘York Community Recycling Fund’.

To find out more information visit: www.york.gov.uk/recyclingfund, which includes examples of the types of schemes the council will fund, how to apply, the timescales for applying and further supporting information.

Council supports students to recycle up to £102k-worth of donations for charity

Recycling promoted by City of York Council, university students and The British Heart Foundation (BHF) could have raised up to £102,312 for the charity last academic year.recycling-community-9155

With council and university officers promoting recycling to students and by BHF providing recycling banks, 7,380 bags were donated between October 2015 to September 2016 to go towards funding the fight against heart disease

For the fourth year running, BHF shops have teamed up with University of York, York St John’s University and City of York Council to encourage students to have an end of year clear out and responsibly dispose of unwanted items by recycling them or by donating them to the charity.

The council donation drop-off points and BHF bins located in areas near where students live were well-used. The clothes, shoes, books, DVDs, bags and small electricals no longer needed are now being sold in BHF shops to help fund BHF research.
(more…)

Reuse and salvage – Questions about York approach

One of the most short sighted decisions of the York Council’s Labour administration between 2011 – 2015 was their decision to scrap plans for a “reuse and salvage” centre.

The facility could have been located at Harewood Whin and – as well as replacing the Beckfield Lane recycling facility which was closed in 2012 – would have provided 21st century salvage facilities for surplus items in the City.

Electrical equipment skip at Hazel Court.

Electrical equipment skip at Hazel Court.

More important, it would have introduced a more professional approach to the re-use of unwanted, but still serviceable, items.

That need is currently partly met by the internet based Freecycle and similar groups but large numbers of usable objects still find themselves in the land-fill stream.

Today, visitors to the Hazel Court amenity site witnesses a good example of the issue. One resident arrived with a set of perfectly serviceable wooden dining chairs. They would have  found  their way into the timber recycling skip had not another visitor offered them a new home. But that was down to luck not planning.

Recycling is more costly, and energy intensive, than simply reusing items…..even if some need repair or a coat of paint.

The Council still persists in asking residents to drop electrical goods into a steel container from a height of 3 metres jeopardising any opportunity to reuse the computers, printers, phones and other potentially valuable items which fill the skip each day.

The Council must take an independent look at the range of re-use services that are available in the city.

They then need to expand them and make sure that the options available are communicated regularly, and effectively, to local residents. 

Waste Collection arrangements in York for this winter

The Council, has started to deliver a leaflet detailing waste collection arrangements for the winter.

Waste leaflet winter 16 17 page 2 Any residents who don’t receive one before the end of the month should contact the Council direct.

You can find out details of your collection dates by clicking here

The calendars also contain information about the final garden waste collections of the year and Christmas collections. The calendars will be available next week to download via the refuse look up tool on the weWaste leaflet winter 16 17bsite www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup.

Liberal Democrats – as part of the Joint Executive running York – reintroduced 2 green bin collections over the winter. We are now pushing on with our One Planet York programme as we aim to boost recycling. As part of this, the council is encouraging everyone to sign up to the new One Planet York Waste App  to get bin collection notifications direct to your smartphone.

Harewood Whin – Waste activities set to continue to 2030

Entrance to Harewood Whin

Entrance to Harewood Whin

Yorwaste the operators of the Harewood Whin waste site are seeking planning permission to extend some of their activities until 2030.

Two applications will be considered at a meeting taking place on 12th May.

The first application seeks agreement to the expansion and continued use of a section of the site for composting.  The proposal envisages the continuing use of the existing concrete composting pad, together with an associated extension of some 6,910 sq metres in area, up until December 2030.

The pad is used to store and turn compostable materials in linear masses or windrows for periods of 6 to 12 weeks at a time to make compost. The size of the pad allows for the processing of a maximum of 70,000 tonnes of material which would meet current expectations of demand over the application period.

The second application is for the construction of a waste transfer station. The facility will be used for the bulking up and transference of materials to be used in the proposed Allerton Park Waste Incinerator.

The applicant has agreed as part of the development proposal to contribute towards the provision of a cycle track along the Wetherby Road frontage and to unilaterally revoke an extant planning permission for a biomass plant on the site.

Both applications are recommended for approval

Students, rubbish and recycling

 

Student WasteA review of the way that students dispose of their rubbish in York has been published.

It is fair to say that the accumulation of piles of rubbish in areas with a high student population has been a cause of friction in the past. This usually peaks at the end of term when students move out.

Issues have included:

  • rubbish and recycling put out at the wrong time/day/place
  • waste not properly disposed of at the end of term/end of year
  • complaints from other residents about waste issues
  • low levels of recycling

rubbish-monk-bar-car-parkIt is likely that areas with a large student population may be targeted to increase recycling. A move from black sacks to the use of wheeled bins may also be considered.

In 2014 and 2015 dedicated end of year clear out programmes took place in both areas of student housing, co-ordinated by the Smarter York and NE officers. These involved the following activities:

  • Leaflets delivered to all affected student households in May detailing the options for recycling/reuse/disposal of waste
  • Extra rubbish and recycling collections organised on designated dates/times for both housing areas (in 2014 there were 4 extra dates, in 2015 there was one extra date)
  • Charity reuse banks sited in key locations and students encouraged to donate suitable items: Monk Bar Car Park corner of Kent Street and Barbican Road, corner of Garrow Hill Avenue, Jaipur Spice Car Park, Londis at Penleys Grove Street
  • Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) – students with student union cards are allowed take waste to Hazel Court using van/trailer without the need to apply for permits. Use will be monitored by staff at the HWRC to ensure that valid student union cards for the York learning establishments are only accepted and that the number of occasions each student uses the service is reasonable.

Terraced homes in Westfield may get wheeled bins

Hope that a new re-use centre will reduce landfill tax costs
Streets in the Westfield area being considered for wheeled bins click for full list

Streets in the Westfield area being considered for wheeled bins click for full list

A report being discussed by the Council later in the month suggests that an additional 5,564 properties across York may get wheeled bins to replace residual waste sacks. Wheeled bins are preferred by the Council as they are more secure (from vandals and rodents), are easier and safer to handle and reduce emptying time.

However, in the past assembling bins at a central collection point has been unpopular with some residents.

A complete list of streets which are likely to be considered for the introduction of wheeled bins can be found by clicking here

The report also reviews the decision of the last Labour Council not to establish a re-use facility in the City.  In 2011 the then Council leadership abandoned the re-use and salvage centre planned for a site at Harewood Whin. Together with the closure of the recycling centre on Beckfield Lane the decision was partly to blame for a subsequent increase in the volume of waste going to landfill.

The new Council are looking at the successful re-use centre in Leeds which generates a surplus for the Council by reusing furniture.

Re-use centre

Re-use centre

There is thought to be a similar opportunity in York where many re-usable electrical items are scrapped. The report says “Reuse remains a key opportunity when it comes to reducing the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill and the associated costs. Reusing an item, rather than throwing it away, can prolong its useful life, reduce the need for finite valuable resources and potentially create work opportunities in terms of repair and maintenance”.

Currently the City depends on a varied range of voluntary groups such as Freecycle York, Bike Rescue and the community furniture store to promote the reuse of serviceable goods.

Other proposals being considered include:

  • Improving recycling in flats
  • Collecting mixed plastics (not recommended at present for cost reasons)
  • Extending garden waste collections to properties currently not covered (those that have green waste)
  • Imposing more restrictions on the number of permits available for the use of Household Waste sites by people using vans
  • Rationalising the number of sub-urban recycling bin sites (more consultation is promised before any are removed)
  • Co-mingling of recycling (not recommended for cost reasons)
  • The type of new collection vehicles to be purchased (leased) for use in narrow streets.

Look out for your new 2015/16 York waste and recycling calendar

City of York Council is encouraging residents to look out for their new waste and recycling calendar for 2015/16, which will be hitting doormats soon.

New calendar out soon

New calendar out soon

From this week households across the city will start to receive their new calendar which outlines when collections are taking place between November 2015 and October 2016, including collections over the Christmas and New Year period.

The council announced earlier this year that residents are set to benefit from two additional garden waste collections this autumn, at the end of the current collection season, as well as improved recycling collections over Christmas.

This will ensure that the maximum time residents will wait for their recycling collection is three weeks, instead of four weeks. The extra garden waste collections will give residents an opportunity to dispose of autumn green waste before winter sets in.

The new calendars also provide tips and advice on what items can and can’t be recycled including paper/cardboard, glass, plastic bottles, cans/tins and if applicable garden waste.

Cllr Andrew Waller, Executive Member for Environmental Services, said: “We are pleased to be improving recycling collections for residents over Christmas as they have asked us to help them to recycle more of their waste. By working together we can reduce the cost to the council of Landfill Tax and to help us become the Greenest City in the North.  We encourage residents to look out for their new collection calendars which will be hitting doormats soon and to let us know if they have not been received by the end of October.”

Flats, rural properties and also city centre properties serviced by St Nicks recycling team will receive collection information in December. For any queries about the St Nicks recycling service in the city centre please go to http://www.stnicks.org.uk/ or telephone 01904 411821.

Residents are asked to ensure their bins or boxes are presented by 7am on the day of their collection, but no earlier than 7pm the evening before.

Residents can find their additional collection dates on the new calendar and also online.

Look up collections at www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup . Households which have not received their calendar by the end of October can contact the council on 01904 551551 ycc@york.gov.uk for a replacement copy.

Find out more about waste and recycling in York by following @CYCWaste on Twitter or ‘like’ CYCWaste on Facebook.

York Council now fining people who put out refuse bins early

The York Council has started to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) to residents who either put their bins out too early or who overfill them.

Since April, seven £80 FPNs have been issued with the Council receiving £320 in fine income so far.Dumped black bags Gladstone Street back lane

The policy is understood to be a response to growing problems with waste being left for long periods in back lanes. This can attract vermin and is also unsightly

The Council issues the following guidance on waste collection

“Dispose of your waste lawfully

You have a number of options to dispose of your waste lawfully and responsibly:

For larger amounts and DIY tasks consider hiring a skip. Skip companies also need to be registered with the Environment Agency.

Remember that our general waste collections are not meant for bulky and excess items, so we can not to take extra bags and large items. You could be liable for a statutory notice if you leave waste the street. Failure to comply with a notice can result in a fixed penalty ticket for £100 or a court appearance with a maximum fine of £1,000. Please always bag your rubbish and don’t put out extra waste if you have a bin”.