Residents should continue to put their waste or recycling out as normal from Monday (2nd November) as the Island’s new waste contractor, Amey, begins collection services.
Although Amey officially takes over from Island Waste Services on Sunday, residents will not see any immediate changes to how their recycling and black bag waste is picked up.
Weekly alternate collections will remain under the new contract and residents just need to put out their black sacks and green wheelie bins or clear recycling sacks on their usual collection day. Collections of clinical waste and assisted collections will also continue as normal from 1st November.
One change that is being immediately brought in involves the booking of a special new vehicle to collect resident’s green garden waste. The current green sack scheme, where residents purchase green sacks for £1.30 each from libraries or council help centres and some local shops will continue, but a dedicated lorry will now be used to collect the green waste for composting at Lynbottom.
This will be collected on your scheduled recycling day, rather than your black bag day as before. Residents will also need to pre-book the green garden waste collection, which means the new lorry will only have to visit the homes that need it. To book a collection, residents should ring 01983 823777 and give at least three working days’ notice to help guide the route.
As previously reported, households will be given a new black wheelie bin for their black bag waste in 2016, while retaining their green recycling bins. Any households not suitable for a black wheelie bin will be given a gull-proof sack instead. However the roll-out of the new bins will not begin until at least April 2016 and residents will be notified ahead of any changes.
Councillor Luisa Hillard, Executive member for sustainability, said:
“You do not need to worry about changes to your normal collection days when Amey officially takes over collection services on 1 November. So for now keep putting your waste out as normal.
Article continues below this advertisement “The only immediate change is for green garden waste which will make the process of collecting and composting garden cuttings more efficient. Please be reassured that you will be told about any future changes well in advance and that these changes will be due to innovation, improvement in recycling rates and achieving value for money.”
Tony Milton from Amey added:
“We are excited to be working in such as unique environment and our teams will be focused on giving the best service to residents through our waste collections and also at the Household Waste Recycling Centres.
“We are aiming to recycle at least 55 per cent of the Island’s waste and will be developing state-of-the-art facilities to do this, allowing the Isle of Wight to manage its own household waste in a sustainable way.”
More details on waste services can be found at www.iwight.com/waste and at www.amey.co.uk/iowwaste.
