Recycling rates on the island of Guernsey have risen by 10 per cent since kerbside recycling collections were introduced to households in March 2014, it has been announced.

According to the Public Services Department, which has responsibility for waste and recycling in Guernsey, in the three months to the end of May 2014, the amount of household waste sent to the Mont Cuet landfill fell by nearly 10 per cent compared to the same three months the year before. In tandem with this, the amount of paper/cardboard, tins, plastics, and cartons collected for recycling rose by more than 10 per cent compared to the same period in 2013.

The department has estimated that if this increase is maintained, around 500 additional tonnes of household materials could be recycled in the first full year of kerbside collections. This would reportedly represent ‘the biggest annual increase in dry recyclables since the introduction of facilities for cardboard in 2006’.

Kerbside service details

First announced in 2013, the £2.4-million kerbside collection service trial was launched in Guernsey in mid-March to ‘make recycling easier and more convenient’ and help the island reach a 50 per cent recycling target (recycling on the island was at 45.9 per cent in 2013, down from 46.8 per cent in 2012).

Designed to ‘help shape the full kerbside service’ – scheduled to start in 2016 – the interim service recycling collections run on the same evening as residual waste collections. It sees paper and card (placed in clear recycling bags) collected on one week, with tins, cans, plastic bottles and containers, foil, and drink cartons (placed in blue recycling bags) collected the next.

Glass is not included in the interim service due to ‘issues associated with its collection’ (such as broken glass contaminating other waste streams, i.e. paper). However, Guernsey has said it will be running glass collection trials in some areas of St Peter Port ‘later this year’ to see if these obstacles can be resolved.

In the meantime, residents are being urged to use bring bank facilities for glass recycling. (The Public Services Department says that since kerbside collections began, glass recycling levels remain ‘in line with the pre-March levels’, while there has been a ‘significant fall’ in materials that are now collected through kerbside, with most down by more than half since the start of the scheme.)

Separate collections of food waste will reportedly only be made available to residents ‘once facilities for processing these materials on-island are available’.

‘A really encouraging start for kerbside’

Public Services Minister Deputy Paul Luxon said the initial results were ‘really encouraging’: “The general increase we have seen in the materials collected, coupled with the fact we have not seen a reduction in glass recycling, is a really encouraging start for kerbside. It suggests that a lot of islanders who were not recycling before have started, as it is now so much easier and more convenient. That is great news.

“What is most encouraging is we have seen an immediate drop in the amount of waste going into Mont Cuet. That is more great news, because it represents a financial saving for the parishes, and for their parishioners.

“This is still early days and we will learn from the experience as we go. Where we can make improvements, and encourage even more islanders to get on board, we will do so. However we have to start somewhere, and from the feedback we have had from contractors so far the uptake has been good.”

There have been some concerns raised over the future of the kerbside scheme however, with some questioning proposals to charge islanders more for recycling and waste collections from 2016, including charging for bags.

Find out more about the kerbside recycling scheme in Guernsey.