News

Local residents will get the chance to have their say on how the Council deals with the 83,000 tonnes of household waste produced in Poole each year at a special meeting next week.

As part of the Borough of Poole’s work to improve how the town’s growing waste mountain is dealt with, a panel of Poole Councillors will hear evidence from local residents, businesses and waste industry experts at two special meetings on Monday 27 May and Tuesday 28 May.

In a similar style to Westminster Select Committees, representatives from the Environment Agency, residents groups, Unions and the Waste Industry will give evidence to the panel on the Borough’s draft Waste Management Strategy which is designed to help the town deal with waste in future years.

Options in the draft strategy include:

expanding the fortnightly kerbside recycling scheme to use wheeled bins and reducing the size of the refuse wheelie bins

introducing recycling collection from flats and fortnightly collection of glass which is not currently part of the scheme

establishing a recycling sorting facility within Poole’s boundary

considering ways of reducing landfill through new thermal and waste to energy technologies in the future

The presentations begin at 9.30am in the Committee Suite, Civic Centre. In order to ensure as many views as possible are heard, members of the public will be able to take part in an open question and answer session at the end of each mornings presentations.

Cllr Bob Williams, Executive Spokesperson for Environment & Regeneration, said: "The amount of waste we produce is a major issue nationally and it is something we cannot afford to ignore. Recycling is just one of the areas that we had some success but with the ever increasing amounts of rubbish we throw away each year we need to think about how we can best deal with our waste efficiently. The only way to deal with this is to look at all the options and consult as widely as possible to make sure we find long term solutions for the needs of the town".