A revolution in your rubbish bin

Wheeled bins are now being used for almost 15,000 properties in Worthing and despite a few notable hiccups, the general view of the new service so far is that it appears to be tackling some of the main objectives of the change in collection style.

Anecdotal evidence so far in the new service area is that the wheeled bins have helped reduce street litter on collection day, reduce vermin attacks on rubbish, reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill and increase the amount of recycling. Obviously, it is too early to say that the new service has definitely tackled these issues, but evidence from the first week is at least encouraging.

As with any major change to a service, the first week was not without problems. Some roads were delivered with incorrect leaflets advising the wrong collection day, some householders claimed never to have seen any leaflets. Some householders have advised that bins haven't arrived or that they have the wrong size. Unfortunately, the council was relying on a delivery company employed by the bin manufacturer, which had appeared to underestimate the delivery logistics.

This week, the attention from our staff is to iron out all these individual difficulties so that the service can meet the expectations of householders. During the roadshows held prior to the launch, the council had a lot of goodwill from the members of the public who attended. Determination to get the new scheme right appears to exist all round and I know that when the service settles down, Worthing and Adur will have a refuse and recycling collection service that we can all be proud of.

Next week, the new garden waste service will commence with almost 1,000 gardeners across the new service area using wheeled bins for their garden waste for the first time. Bins for this part of the service are now in the process of being delivered. It will be interesting to see how this new part of the service will affect the recycling rate.

Gardeners who have traditionally been using sacks will know that there is a temporary supply problem due to a mechanical breakdown at the supplier's plant. We hope to get this fixed next week in time for the big autumn garden clear-up that tends to happen in October.

Through the auspices of this column, I would like to pay tribute to all the staff in the front line of delivering the refuse and recycling services. Everybody at the depot worked extremely hard last week to try to deal with people's individual problems. There is a tremendous will on the part of Adur and Worthing Services staff to make the new service work. If you have a problem, please be patient and we will try to sort it out for you.