Croydon Council named local authority of the year for recycling (From Croydon Guardian)

Croydon Council named local authority of the year for recycling

4:20pm Sunday 24th June 2012 in News

Croydon named local authority of the year for recycling

Croydon has been crowned local authority of the year at the Plant and Waste Recycling trade show.

The award judges were looking for a local authority which had developed and implemented a successful waste and recycling strategy.

The decision to move to weekly food waste collections, was one of the factors that has allowed the council to reach a recycling rate almost three times what it was in 2006.

Residents in 1,500 blocks of flats have received reusable kitchen storage bags for collecting their recyclables; and, for those on the go, on-street recycling bins were introduced in busy areas such as train stations.

The judges said they were "impressed by Croydon's efforts to address the harder to access communal properties".

They also praised the borough for doing more to target areas where recycling rates overall had not been so good.

In their summary, the judges said Croydon's was "an excellent scheme that requires imaginative innovation and intelligent use of current resources and systems."

Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for highways and environmental services, said: "I am truly delighted that the team’s hard work and effort over the last year has paid off with this national recognition of their achievements.

"Recycling is a huge priority for residents as it means that we can continue to keep council tax down by avoiding the increasingly high costs associated with landfill."