Council remove recycling banks across the Melton borough

Melton Council decided to take away the so-called ‘bring sites’ from locations such as The Crescent, Melton Country Park, Valley Road, Wilton Road car park, outside Tesco supermarket and from various villages because too many people were depositing unsuitable items which contaminated the cleaner materials which had been left.

From October, householders will have the opportunity to recycle a wider range of waste matter, including textiles and batteries.

Raman Selvon, waste and environmental maintenance manager at the council, told the Melton Times: “The sites are all being removed as they are in essence surplus to requirements.

“The kerbside collections are very inclusive and will, from October, take everything the bring sites were able to.

“We were getting very high percentages of contaminated material in the bring sites, which then could, and did, contaminate the much cleaner kerbside collected materials or they were simply being misused or underused.”

Waste and recycling companies have been bidding to take over the new council contract, which runs from October.

Mr Selvon added: “During the recent tender process all the bidders suggested removing the bring sites so they did not even make it into the new contract.

“Members agreed this at the start of the tender process and further endorsed this as we moved to remove them as we have been doing for a couple of months now.

“This is all part of a new modern service - we will be adding back textiles and batteries as part of the pending new kerbside collections.”