New Targets Bring in A New Approach From Birmingham’s City Council

• May. 31 by Rachael Giaramita (0)

As government recycling figures are set to rise Birmingham City Council have high hopes for new ways to counteract the issue of waste and encourage recycling.

In 2015 the governments targets for recycling conversion in Birmingham will increase to 50%, currently the rate of conversion is 34%, giving the council just five years to achieve this figure.

Although an impressive figure has already been accomplished the council admit that something significant is going to have to happen to realise this new target.

What are the options

An area the council are looking into is food waste, which makes up 40% of a household waste.

“There would have to be a separate collection for this, but its a big debate we are having here over the next few months, and again this will all rely on the funding that is available” Kevin Mitchell

The approach

The council have modernised the approach to this new initiative, and have undertaken research to address what areas of Birmingham they can target in order to provide new recycling collections, and help change the habits of the public.

“We will have to look at social demographic groups that will look at the publics recycling habits, another area we have researched is how these groups like to be contacted.” Kevin Mitchell

Through research the council have deduced that the preferred way of contact is through direct marketing telephone call, and will be putting together a plan where households will receive a direct phone call to alert them of new services.

“We don’t want to print off a leaflet that doesn’t make an impact, we want to Birmingham’s residents know further information about what services we offer. There is a long way to go, but we are trying to do the best we can to make a difference.” Kevin Mitchell

How did the council increase the previous rates in Birmingham

The council targeted 99% of households in Birmingham in order to cover and provide collections, and achieved this in 40,000 households in Birmingham.

“It is our statuary duty to provide 100% or coverage of recycling, and this is something we are working towards, with have also worked to raise the profile of recycling with in communities, with the new initiative of Recycling Champions.” Kevin Mitchell

This idea has evolved for the Street Champions program where ordinary residential volunteers were personally involved with helping keep the streets clean, and alerting the council to problems such as graffiti in their local area.

The council offer training and support for the volunteers in hopes that these individuals can help spread the word about recycling in their local neighborhood, and feed back any issues within these communities.

“There are many benefits to this idea, a good sense of community is instilled, and its a great way to get members of the community talking to one another.” Kevin Mitchell

The council’s ambition it to have 3000 Recycling Champions in and around Birmingham.