West Berkshire Council in partnership with their waste contractor Veolia have opened two new mini recycling centres in the district. The new sites are located in East Garston (in the overflow car park for the Queens Arms, Postcode – RG17 7ER), and at the end of Theale High Street (Postcode – RG7 5AR).

The mini recycling centres have banks for plastic pots, tubs, trays cans, small electricals, cardboard and paper. *Banks for food and drink cartons (including paper tubes with metal ends) and textiles are coming soon*.

The new Theale facility will have more recycling options for residents and will replace the existing smaller Theale site. These two new facilities will bring the total number of our mini recycling centres to eight and will complement the services available at our two large household waste recycling centres located at Padworth and Newtown Road in Newbury.

The new sites will expand the number of locations from which the Council collects plastic pots, tubs and trays. Last year, about 29 tonnes of additional plastic materials were collected from the four existing collection points across the district. We’re now actively exploring more options for helping residents to recycle especially away from the kerbside. It is anticipated that at least one more mini recycling facility will be installed in the east of the district in the near future.

Residents are reminded to only place the correct items in the banks for recycling and not to leave bags of recycling/rubbish next to the banks.

Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter, Executive Member for Environment and Waste at West Berkshire Council, says, “We are really pleased to be offering more recycling services for residents of West Berkshire, making it more convenient to recycle a wider variety of items. We hope these new mini recycling centres are well received by our residents as we continue to strive for a greener West Berkshire”.

Sara Perry, General Manager for Veolia West Berkshire says, “These additional mini recycling centres will enable more residents to do their bit for the environment by recycling more of their waste and a wider range of materials.  Recycling collected here as well as at our main sites will all help Veolia to meet the high targets we have for increasing recycling in partnership with West Berkshire.”

In wider recycling news, the Council is also pleased to report that good progress is being made towards starting separate weekly food waste collections from all households from 31 October 2022. We are encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive support that residents gave to the separate food waste proposals in our resident survey which closed in May this year. Ahead of the service starting, residents will receive additional communications about the service including bin hangers which will go out to households during this month. Food waste caddies and information leaflets will also be distributed to all households between August and October 2022. Residents are kindly asked to store the new caddies safely and not to use them for collection until the separate weekly food waste service starts at the end of October.

For more information about the new recycling facilities, please visit: www.westberks.gov.uk/minirecyclingcentres

*These banks are coming soon.