Complaints after recycling waste left for five weeks
3:03am Thursday 15th May 2008
PEOPLE have faced a five-week wait to have rubbish taken away after a green recycling plan hit problems.
Private company Greencycle admits it has suffered a setback after taking over kerbside collections in Durham, Easington, Chester-le-Street and Sedgefield last month.
The company, which is based in Enfield, Middlesex, said its workers had been unable to find some streets on key routes - but pledged yesterday to put right the problems.
Council officials said the scheme had been a victim of its own success, with far more waste left out than expected.
Greencycle took over the fortnightly collections, which are in addition to the usual council waste bin collections, from Premier Waste.
Residents were asked to fill a plastic bag with cardboard, plastic and paper, and a green box with tins and bottles.
But the scheme hit problems when homes were missed out and rubbish was left in the streets.
The firm said some of the problems were due to high demand from residents and extra crews had been put on in some areas to help with the workload.
But some residents have complained that they are still missed out.
Melanie Shawcross, of Thrush Cross Place, Gilesgate, near Durham City, said she waited five weeks for her rubbish to be collected.
"Five weeks is an awful long time to wait," she said.
In Brierville, in the Neville's Cross area of Durham City, bags and boxes lined the street and it took the company a month to remove the rubbish.
Resident Judith Webb said that when she rang Durham City Council to complain, all she got was an automated message telling people their rubbish would be picked up.
"People here are keen to recycle. They are delighted that the rubbish isn't going into landfill - but it is not much fun if you are sitting with tonnes of rubbish up the street.''
Both women contacted their respective local councillors for help.
Greencycle managing director Neil Rippon said the firm had experienced a number of problems in the first few weeks, but said complaints passed on by councils were decreasing as the 100 employees, many of whom were redundant factory workers, were getting used to the routes and the collection procedures.
He said: "We are not 100 per cent, but we are largely there. The main thing is that the rate of recycling has become very high. Overall, it has doubled and in Easington it has increased by 104 per cent.
"I am quite pleased with how we are going, but we have further to go in the customer satisfaction stakes and in achieving a much lower rate of missed collections and complaints.'
He said difficulties in Thrush Close Place were due to it being a cul-de-sac.
"If you miss a collection, people take their rubbish in and when you come back only half of it is out. Also, householders get confused about what day we are supposed to be collecting on," he said.
Jeff Riddell, head of environmental services at Durham City Council, said: "The new scheme has increased our recycling recovery rates by approximately 70 per cent in the first month of operation.
"This is a fantastic achievement - way beyond our expectations. Unfortunately, this has caused initial teething problems, due to vehicle under capacity, which have now been overcome with the introduction of additional resources."
A spokesman for Chester-le-Street District Council said: "Greencycle has been instrumental in drastically increasing the recycled materials over the past month or so. However, there are operational teething problems, which we are, as a priority, resolving."