York’s successful kerbside recycling scheme is set to undergo changes to make collection quicker and easier, allowing collection to be extended to cover the whole city.

Currently residents present their recycling in a variety of boxes and bags. Collection crews often have sort through the waste dividing it up as they load it into collection trucks.

A new system has been agreed which will see £490,000 invested in providing residents with three recycling boxes with lids to allow them to sort their own recycling.

Residents would be asked to separate their own recycling into paper and card, glass bottles and jars and plastic bottles and cans using the new boxes.

The changes would mean collection crews will no longer have to search through bags to sort the recycling at the kerbside and will be able work more efficiently.

The increased efficiency is expected to save the council £210,000 a year.

The proposed new scheme was backed by residents, with 83% of people who responded to the recent Budget Consultation supporting the idea of sorting their own recycling into three new boxes.

The efficiency savings generated by the new system will be used to fund the rollout of kerbside recycling to households that currently have no recycling collection service.

The kerbside recycling scheme has proven very successful and has enabled York’s recycling rate to increase from 12% in 2003 to more than 45% in 2009.

The new system will make it easier for collecting teams to collect kerbside recycling and will save them having to sort recycling as they go along. The efficiency savings this will generate will allow us to roll out kerbside recycling to those areas of the city that currently don’t have a collection.

In the past York residents have shown their willingness to fully engage with attempts to cut down on the waste we send to landfill, I am sure they will embrace this new method or sorting recycling with the same enthusiasm.