Council and charity's recycled goods scheme set to continue

Items collected for re-use at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) across the county are collected by the Katharine House Hospice charity, which managed the operation from the Cannock HWRC.

Around 150,000 items are collected each year from across Staffordshire, with around 80 per cent being offered for sale. The partnership, which has been in place since 2013, hopes that this number can increase in the future.

Next week, the county council’s Prosperous Overview and Scrutiny Committee will look at how this operation could work in the future, potentially benefitting more charities across Staffordshire.

Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for environment, infrastructure and climate change Simon Tagg said: “We’re pleased that through our household waste recycling centres we are able to support a Staffordshire charity which does an invaluable job in our communities.

“We look forward to continuing this partnership until 2023 and hope the number of items it can sell increases in that time.

"I’d urge people to consider bringing unwanted or unused household items to one of our centres.

“When this arrangement is reviewed, there is the potential to work with more charities in the future.”

The county council has 14 HWRCs across Staffordshire, as well as a site over the Staffordshire border at Baddesley Ensor, jointly funded with, and run by, Warwickshire County Council.

In March this year, the county council’s cabinet decided to bring the operations of the HWRCs back to the county council from its current contractor.

Staffordshire County Council says its recycling centres are currently accepting around 66,000 tonnes of waste per annum across 42 types of material and are visited some 20,000 times a year by traders, as well as domestic users.