Another Big Boost for Recycling in Maidstone

11.58.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th Apr 2008

Maidstone town centre visitors no longer have to throw away their drinks cans, plastic bottles, plastic sandwich wrappers or newspapers. Maidstone Borough Council has installed ten special recycling bins in the town centre and a further two at Coxheath Parade so that shoppers can throw away their litter with a clear conscience that they will be recycled.

The new recycling bins are sited next to existing waste bins to make it easy for shoppers to put the right things in the correct bin.

Sacks from the recycling and the waste bins will be collected at the same time but the recycling sacks will then be separated and the materials sent away for recycling.

The installation of the new recycling litter bins is a visible reminder of the positive change in recycling performance achieved in Maidstone Borough under Lib Dem leadership.

For Lib Dem Environment Chief Tony Harwood it is a very personal victory as he proposed and championed the introduction of the recycling litter bins. Tony received a scare when at the Council annual budget meeting Conservative councillors tried (thankfully unsuccessfully) to sabotage their introduction by removing the funding allocated to enable the bins to be emptied!

Local Liberal Democrats are committed to expanding the coverage of the recycling bins beyond the initial town centre and Coxheath locations and into other parts of the Borough.