Super Recycling System is still failing 1,000 households a day

The Super Recycling System run by FCC Environment on behalf of SHDC is still failing 1,000 households a day according to South Hams Councillor Julian Brazil. 

Cllr Brazil attended the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at South Hams District Council today, 10 June, where the "shambolic" recycling system was being discussed. 

He said: "15 per cent of houses are having issues, that's 1,000 every day. FCC came up with yet another plan at 11.50pm last night. We haven't seen the details yet but from what I understand many households will have all of their recycling put into the old rubbish trucks, mixing it all together, and then this will be separated (again!) I have asked to see the contracts. Many of you will already recognise this operation.

"It looks like this new plan will be coming to the extra-ordinary full council meeting next week. Thank you to my colleague, Cllr John Birch, for pushing for these meetings.

"Unbelievably one councillor questioned why we are having these meetings! It is because of the pressure being brought to bear by Cllr Birch and other opposition councillors that hopefully things will get better - but don't hold your breath!"

The meeting, for which the minutes will be available in the near future, was scheduled specifically to address the issues with the new recycling system, as is the extraordinary full council meeting due to be held on Thursday, 17 June, at 2pm. 

UPDATED STATEMENT FROM FCC ENVIRONMENT CAN ALSO BE READ HERE. 

South Hams Recycling Service Update from FCC Environment in full: 

"Following the South Hams Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting in South Hams yesterday, 10th June, FCC Environment would like to confirm that it provided a full and frank account of the current status outlining potential resolutions with regard the new recycling service in South Hams during this session. The meeting was recorded and this recording acts as a permanent public record of our current position.

"FCC Environment has been focusing its efforts on rectifying the issues that it has experienced in rolling out the new recycling service in South Hams.

"We would like to once again apologise to affected residents for the ongoing issues with the delivery of this service and we understand how frustrating it has been for the residents we are struggling to reach. We are continuing our efforts to reach those who have been without a service.

"We have already mobilised significant additional resource to the contract and we have re-assessed all of the options available to us to address these issues including possible temporary changes to the recycling service to overcome the very real challenges we have faced that have prevented us from collecting from some residents. These options are currently with the Council to review.

"We are still experiencing very high volumes of materials which is positive as residents clearly want to recycle and are keen to use the new system. However, these increased volumes have exceeded the available capacity on the vehicles meaning they have to return to the recycling depot more frequently during the day to unload before being able to continue collecting. We would like to reiterate that the vehicles which were selected to deliver this service are purpose built, state of the art recycling vehicles and they are sized to maximise the collection of recycling across the District.

"These increased volumes have also resulted in the recycling depot being full making both unloading of the collection vehicles and the onward operations much more complex. We are working hard and exploring all options in order to find solutions for dealing with these increased volumes.

"We will provide further service updates in due course.

"In the meantime, we do ask residents to continue to follow council advice to place their recycling bins and boxes in the right places for collection. We appreciate for some that this may mean changes to the way their recycling has been collected previously but we ask for your ongoing support on this and we can assure residents that materials put out for recycling are being recycled.

"We would like to thank those residents who have been affected for their continued patience whilst we work to resolve the current difficulties. We remain confident that, once these hurdles have been overcome and with some possible service changes to ease the pressure, that the service we have been contracted to operate across South Hams and West Devon will deliver all of the benefits promised at the outset."