From the Chamber: Refuse Collection
Biffa Teams
It was a tremendous privilege to bump into Dave, one of our dedicated and hard-working crew members at the Earley Green Fair recently, along with one of our fantastic new road sweeping vehicles ‘Sweeping Beauty’. Dave, along with everyone who is part of the Biffa team has been doing a fantastic job to keep our roads clean, collect our refuse, food waste and recycling during some incredibly challenging conditions in recent weeks and on some days, this has meant everyone (including office staff) starting even earlier to give the crews the chance to finish ahead of the peak heat in the afternoon. A huge thanks to all of you for your hard work and commitment!
Recycling - A Record Performance
Effective management of our refuse and recycling is vital and never more so as we experience the impacts of climate change bringing more extreme weather to our own country, and across the world. Doing everything that we can to reduce, reuse and recycle has never been more important and if you want to understand more about what might be coming if we do not take this seriously, may I encourage you to attend a screening of the Peoples Emergency Briefing.
Our recycling centres (Island Road, Reading and Longshot Lane, Bracknell) are managed by re3 which is run in partnership by Reading, Bracknell and Wokingham Council’s. I was delighted to read in the recently published re3 Annual Environmental Report that over the last year re3 achieved a record recovery rate of 98.6%, up from 93.6% in 2024/25.
For context, across Wokingham, Reading and Bracknell, re3 managed 175,961 tonnes of waste, recycled 20,861 tonnes of food waste and 23,058 tonnes of green waste, and processed 29,410 tonnes of household recycling through the Materials Recycling Facility, a 10.3% increase on the previous year. Customer satisfaction also remained strong, with 91% of residents rating the recycling centres as good or very good.
But if you think that re3 only manage the recycling centres, you miss a whole load of other important things that they did in our community last year:
- re3read redistributed 21,382 books into the community
- re3wear helped provide 4,000 school uniform items to families
- re3grow provided compost to 104 community organisations
- re3 provides the Scrapp recycling App which contains useful information on what you can recycle locally
When recycling becomes contaminated (food waste or things that are not yet recyclable are included) it impacts the total amount that can be recycled, increases costs and adversely impacts our environment. Food waste is particularly important as when this goes into the caddies the methane given off during the process is captured. When food waste gets mixed in with the general rubbish or with the dry recycling, methane gas gets into the atmosphere where it can drive global temperatures even higher. Collection vehicles have separate containers to avoid things getting mixed when collected. Thank you for all that you are doing to help protect our environment by taking care when sorting your waste and recycling.
re3 Pop Up and Reuse Shop - 12 September
The re3 Pop Up and Reuse Shop provides residents with the opportunity to buy pre-loved household items including furniture, toys, sports equipment, etc. at bargain prices with the proceeds going to local charities. Last year about £500 was raised for Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
The next Pop Up and Reuse Shop event will be held on Saturday 12 September between 10am and 1pm at Finchampstead Baptist Centre, Gorse Ride North, Finchampstead, Wokingham, RG40 4ES. Come along early to secure the best bargains and help raise money for a great local charity!