THE people of Holsworthy have been recycling so efficiently that two collections were needed last week when one round was unable to take all the rubbish in one go.

On Monday, February 25, crews were unable to collect recycling in the following areas: Middlecott, Hollocombe, Brandis Corner and Holsworthy. However, a second collection took place and despite some hurdles, including new crew and unfamiliar routes, all the recycling has now been collected.

Lead member for waste and recycling Cllr Mervyn Langmead said: “Firstly I would like to apologise for any inconvenience residents experienced through the missed collections on Monday. I’m happy to report that the situation was quickly resolved and any missed collections were completed by early morning the next day. 

“The underlying story is that residents have done such a great job in recycling that we had to introduce an extra round for these areas to accommodate the amount of extra material people were putting out! Unfortunately unfamiliar routes and crew changes caused some properties to be missed on the initial runs.”

It also turns out the area is among the top in the country for recycling rates, and is already ahead of Government proposals.

Cllr Langmead said: “The good news for the environment is that the council is already ahead of many of the recent Government proposals such as weekly food waste collections as these were introduced in the Torridge area in June last year. At the same time we also extended the range of materials that could be recycled and switched our black bag collections to fortnightly.

“The fantastic response from our residents has resulted in an increase in recycling levels both here and across the rest of the district. Recent figures show that 52% of everything collected is now recycled compared to 40% for the same time last year. There has also been a 23% reduction in waste simply being buried in the ground as landfill.

However, he added: “Once again we apologise for the inconvenience this slight delay caused but it’s great that the underlying story is such a positive one and thanks once again to all our residents for their contribution to this.”