A council report published today confirms that its recycling fleet needs to be replaced urgently.

Obsolescent vehicles are causing the recycling service to become increasingly unreliable.

The Council ran into similar problems with its residual waste collection fleet three years ago when replacement ordering was delayed for too long.

Replacements have only recently started arriving. They include two electric trucks.

The proportion of waste that is recycled or composted in York remains around the national average of 44%.

The Councill seem set to agonise for several months before committing to purchasing new recycling vehicles.

 It is likely to rule out food waste collection until details of a government scheme are published.

Meanwhile the focus of a review is likely to concentrate on whether to replace the present open box storage system with something  more sophisticated. The Council has ruled out the comingling option (where recycling is collected in a single bin and is subsequently separated before being processed).

 it does, however, seems set to continue the present agreement (started during the first COVID Lockdown) where only paper is connected separately from other recycling (bottles, tins, plastic etc)

A preliminary meeting is taking place next week. Click here to read the background report.