Extra Recycling Points In Brighton & Hove For Cartons, Electrical Waste

Public recycling points for cartons and electrical waste are to be set up across Brighton and Hove after councillors backed the move.

They reached their decision after hearing that, last year, almost a tonne and a half of cartons contaminated household recycling bins in the area.

Cartons such as Tetra Pak are among the items that cannot be placed in domestic recycling bins although they can be disposed of at 30 of the existing community recycling sites.

And now Brighton and Hove City Council is to add more containers for cartons and electrical waste at dozens of community recycling sites.

The decision was made at a meeting of the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee at Hove Town Hall on Tuesday (November 14).

More than 54 extra receptacles would be able to take cartons while 21 other containers would take waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

The council currently has just two WEEE containers at community recycling sites, councillors were told. Others were withdrawn because they had been vandalised or people stole items left for recycling.

The new WEEE recycling bins are designed to reduce theft and have been used successfully by another council, the committee was told.

A report to councillors said that providing more recycling points for electrical waste would reduce the risk of fire from lithium batteries which has been a problem for a while.

Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, who chairs the committee, and his deputy, fellow Labour councillor Theresa Fowler, visited the electronics recycling company Light Brothers, in Lewes, to see the process.

Councillor Fowler said:

“I’m really pleased about the WEEE bins. It was really exciting to see what is going to happen to all the electrical items. I’m really excited that more of this stuff is going to be recycled.”

She said that people in her ward, Hollingdean and Fiveways, had asked her for carton recycling and would be pleased to learn that new containers were due to be brought in soon.

Green councillor Kerry Pickett said that there had been no public consultation about locations and that people had shared their concerns.

Councillor Pickett said:

“There have been issues with people doing things behind bins that they really shouldn’t be doing.

“If you are ‘listening Labour’ as you claim, then you would agree to have a consultation with the residents on this issue.”

At the meeting yesterday, councillors were told that new containers would not be sited in Crown Street, off Western Road, Brighton, because of anti-social behaviour.

Councillor Rowkins said that he had spoken to Crown Street residents who were concerned about problems linked to the existing recycling bins and the location would not be used.

He said:

“If we were creating new recycling points in new locations, we would definitely consult. These proposals are to simply add these containers to existing recycling drop of points.”

Conservative councillor Carol Theobald supported the proposals in principle while agreeing with Councillor Pickett that the council should consult people about where the receptacles were located.

She said:

“I believe they’re quite large. This is a good thing to have for the Tetra Paks. There’s a lot we don’t recycle that other authorities do.”

The council’s assistant director responsible for rubbish and recycling, Rachel Chasseaud, said that the Hollingdean depot did not have enough space to process cartons from domestic recycling.

The cartons left in community receptacles would be recycled by ACE UK, the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, which is based in Halifax, in Yorkshire. The company is expected to empty community containers fortnightly.

Last year, almost 1.2 tonnes of cartons and more than 1.3 tonnes of electrical waste were left in rubbish bins in Brighton and Hove and sent to the Newhaven incinerator.

Recycling bin contamination data suggested that there were almost 1.5 tonnes of cartons and more than 800kg of electrical waste.

The council’s “carbon-neutral fund” is expected to cover the costs of the electrical waste containers, with the waste due to be processed in Lewes.

The new receptacles would cost just over £30,000 in total, councillors were told.

The committee rejected the plea to consult people about where to site the new containers but voted unanimously to go ahead with adding them to dozens of sites around Brighton and Hove.