Ten new recycling vehicles are ready to hit Wearside’s roads – and Sunderland City Council is asking local youngsters to help give them names.

The vehicles were recently bought to update the council’s fleet and to boost the quality of life of local residents and improve the environment.

Cllr Amy Wilson, Sunderland City Council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said, “All of our new vehicles have a split-back recycling facility, meaning that we can now separate the paper from the rest of the recycling in every vehicle.”

“Paper has the most important value of all the recyclable materials and it’s very important that it’s kept separate and dry.”

The new vehicles also have cutting-edge in-cab technology, meaning that the crews can update a central computer system as they work. This will help keep track of missing bins and contamination problems.

Cllr Wilson continued, “We know that young people play a big part in recycling at home and influence others to recycle so we’re inviting all Sunderland primary schools to submit their ideas for names for our new vehicles.”

“The winning schools will ‘adopt’ their vehicle and it will be branded with their winning names. We’ll also be continuing our work with recycling roadshows in schools, raising awareness of how easy it is to recycle and what goes in the blue bin.”

All Sunderland’s primary schools will receive information on how to enter the competition.

It is believed that the average UK household creates around a tonne of waste a year – the weight of a small family car – and that the average person throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks.

Though recycling rates in the UK have improved, we still lag behind other European countries. While the UK recycles around 45% of its waste, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands recycle about 60% of theirs.

Recycling just one tin saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours while recycling one plastic bottle saves enough to power a lightbulb for the same amount of time.

If you would like more information on recycling in Sunderland, please go to www.sunderland.gov.uk/bluebin.

(The featured image shows Cllr Amy Wilson with some of the new recycling vehicles.)  


Get Sunderland Magazine in your inbox.

* indicates required

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here