Waste collection isn’t rubbish, say residents

Reporter: DAWN MARSDEN
Date online: 03/02/2010

OLDHAMERS have given the borough’s waste collection services a massive thumbs up.

The council surveyed residents about changes made to rubbish collections over the past few years.

The results show that 78 per cent rated the overall service as very good to excellent, with almost a third of these giving it 10 out of 10.

The vast majority (83 per cent) of those surveyed said that the new collection system was much better than the old one.

Waste collection services have undergone massive changes as the borough aims to go cleaner and greener.

As well as the normal household waste collections, services to pick up paper, cardboard, food waste, glass, cans, plastic and garden waste have been introduced.

The authority recently sent out 2,000 forms to households across the borough asking what they thought of the new system.

The results are now in and other findings show that 77 per cent say they are happy/very happy with the food waste service, with half of these giving it 10 out of 10.

A total of 77 per cent of people say they are happy/very happy with the paper and cardboard service, while 83 per cent are happy/very happy with the glass, cans and plastic service.

More than four fifths of those asked said they were happy/very happy with the garden waste collection and 78 per cent were happy with the grey bin service.

Councillor Mark Alcock, cabinet member for the environment and infrastructure, said: “Overall this survey shows that residents rate the council’s waste services very highly.

“The information we’ve gleaned from the public combined with high recycling rates show that we are one of the greenest council’s in the North-West, and we intend to improve on that even further.

“The council has taken on board what has come out of the exercise and we have listened to what people have said.

“For instance, residents have asked for bins for paper and cardboard so we are now rolling out this programme.”