Recycling service set to expand

Epping Forest residents will soon be able to recycle plastic bottles alongside their paper. The clear sack paper and can recycling service will be expanded to cover plastic bottles too. And the district's many gardeners will get a green waste service all year round.

Previously the district council's green waste service stopped in the winter months. Uncertainty about when it started and ended caused problems.

Sacks for garden waste are now FREE in order to encourage people to use the service. You can get rolls of sacks from outlets across the district, including Epping Civic Offices, Chigwell Parish Council offices, Loughton, Waltham Abbey, and Ongar Information centres and these commercial outlets:

Nazeingbury News, Nazeing; Tysea Stores, Stapleford Abbotts; Lambourne News, Chigwell Row, Senners Newsagents, Ongar; The Book Shop, Theydon Bois; The News Shop, North Weald; Shell Garage, Abridge; Handy Stores, Coopersale; News Box, Loughton; Valley News, Buckhurst Hill and Lindsey Stores, Epping; Epping News Agents, High Road, Epping. Not more than two rolls per household will be able to be collected at one time.

"This is good news for people who want to recycle vegetable and fruit peelings as well as gardeners," said Theydon Bois Liberal Democrat councillor Kay Rush.

Liberal Democrat councillors have long pressed the council to expand the range of materials it collects for recycling. Following a request from Epping district councillor Janet Whitehouse it is looking into collecting aluminium foil. "Many people, such as those who receive meals on wheels, collect large amounts of foil but don't have an easy way to recycle it," Janet said.

These improvements to the recycling service are part of a big overhaul in the way our waste is dealt with.

In order to increase recycling, avoid the threat of incineration at North Weald, and keep down council tax the district council will be trialling wheelie bins in Chigwell from October this year. If the trials go OK wheelie bins could come to elsewhere in the district next year.

"Many people have strong views on wheelie bins - for and against," said Liberal Democrat councillor Janet Whitehouse. "We have been assured that residents will have a choice about the size of their bins and that people who cannot reasonably use wheelie bins - for example because of the sort of flat or house they have - will be able to use alternative arrangements such as continuing with a sack collection."