New £1m machine will help sort town's rubbish

A new million pound machine under construction to help boost recycling in Swindon should be operational by Christmas.

The council hopes it will allow it to properly sort plastics and metals so it can be sold on at a higher price.

The funds could then be used for improvements to make the town's waste depot more green.

The construction comes as the council tries to turnaround Swindon's low recycling rates, including plans to further expand its food waste collections.

The new machine is the latest stage of the overhaul of Swindon's waste collections introduced last year.

"It means Swindon Council is able to get more value out of it, get more money from it and reinvest that into green services" said Councillor Chris Watts.

Plastics and metals arrive in the same container but Swindon's current facilities do not have the capability to properly prepare the materials, so the council relies on other companies to deal with this off site.

Overlooking the machine's construction, waste manager Christabel Banks-Coffey described how the new machine will allow the council to prepare properly cleaned and sorted materials to sell.

"We have two types of magnets and the conveyor will separate it out, then we can bail it up as a really good commodity to sell and hopefully get an income from", she said.

It is part of a wider plan to improve all aspects of the waste service, as "we were one of the lowest towns in the South West as far as recycling is concerned", said Mr Watts.

He said the "systemic issues" which had led to long delays in collections at the start of 2024 had been fixed and the council was now ready to expand the service, including introducing food waste collections to residents in flats in early 2025.

But the opposition Conservatives warned the recently introduced food waste collections were not being as well used as predicted.

"I don't think there's sufficient ambition, they're falling behind with the food waste recycling and more work is needed there to encourage residents to buy into that", Conservative leader Councillor Gary Sumner said.

Mr Watts said this year the council forecasts it will collect 6,000 tonnes of food waste, "but really it should be 7,000 or 8,000" he said.

"A key part of this is residents playing their part as well, making sure that they're recycling properly."

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