Banking on glass trial

In less than two months glass recycling facilities are due to return to Bingham after a three-year absence.

In a six-month trial, sound-deadening banks will be installed at 11 sites in Bingham to collect glass.

At present, around 2,500 tonnes of glass is collected each year from 58 recycling points across Rushcliffe.

A borough council support services manager, Mr Phillip Barker, expects this to rise to 3,500 tonnes a year after the introduction of the trial.

Under the trial, bottle banks will be installed at Bingham’s Newgate Street carpark at a cost of £4,100.

Smaller containers will be at ten sites in the town, including the Wychwood Road end of the Wynhill playing field, Crow Close play area on Cogley Lane, Bingham Rugby Club carpark on Brendon Grove, and the entrance of Langtree Gardens near the railway station.

A bank will also be installed at East Bridgford.

The banks will be lined with a sound deadening material made out of felt.

Around 300 households in Bingham who already receive assisted collections will be part of an on-demand trial, where they can arrange for their glass to be collected once their box has been filled.

As well as monitoring the quantity of glass recycling during the trial and the council will also be looking at income generated.

Mr Barker said: “Once we have got the trial established we will know how much it will cost.

“A lot will depend on the one in Newgate Street carpark. A lot of people won’t walk to them, they will wait to drive into the centre of town to deposit the glass there.

“The biggest thing we don’t know yet is, are these going to be used? Are people going to come from villages and absolutely swamp us?

“We have got someone in Bingham every day so if they need to be emptied every day they can be. It just depends how the usage goes.

It is something we cannot predict.”

He said, unlike Newark and Sherwood District Council, they did not empty the contents of the different bottle banks into one container when they collected the glass, something which has caused annoyance in Newark.

Mr Barker said green, brown and clear glass was loaded into the van’s three separate compartments, which was created using metal plates.

He said the highest percentage of glass collected was green followed by brown and then clear.

Once the banks have been emptied, they are taken to the council’s Central Works Depot on Abbey Road, West Bridgford.

Here, they are stored before being sent to be recycled in Leeds by one of the UK’s largest collectors and recyclers of waste glass, Berryman Glass.

Mr Barker said depending on the outcome of the trial, the banks could remain in the town or kerbside collection could be considered, but this was an expensive option.

Bingham has been without glass recycling facilities since 2005 when the bottle banks at Moorbridge Road Industrial Estate were burned down.

They had been moved to the industrial estate from Newgate Street carpark after complaints from residents about the noise.

Mr Barker said 19 sites had been earmarked as possible locations for the trial but some landowners did not want a recycling facility on their land.

The total cost of installing the banks in Bingham and East Bridgford is £42,000.

Another £7,200 will be spent on the running costs of the six-month trial, which ends in November.

Bottle banks are also expected in Shelford and Cropwell Bishop in the future.