End of the road for electric waste vehicles ‘marks a new dawn for recycling’

The old electric waste and recycling collection vehicles (pictured) that many likened to milk floats, have taken their last trundle along the roads of Lewes district.  Motorists will no longer bemoan being stuck behind one of the electric vehicles on a narrow rural road after the last ‘EV’ in service completed its final round last week.

Alongside the roll-out of the new wheelie bins that are replacing the old boxes and bags residents used for recycling, Lewes District Council has also been retiring each Electric waste Vehicle and replacing it with a new collection vehicle.

Councillor Andy Smith, Leader of Lewes District Council, said:

“The phasing out of the last EV marks a new dawn for recycling across the district.

“They represented an archaic system that was terribly inefficient. The old collection process limited the items residents could  recycle yet required people to invest far too much time sorting them all out.

“The new wheelie bins, combined with our food waste and green waste collection service and allied to the sterling efforts of residents, have put our recycling rates on an upward curve for the first time in many years.”

There are about 3500 homes, mainly in the north of the district, yet to receive a new wheelie bin.

Councillor Smith added:

“Because we’ve had to take the last EV out of service a little earlier than planned, we will collect the recycling from the homes yet to receive a wheelie bin with a different waste vehicle. The recycling will all go in the back and it will still be recycled as normal.”

The final deliveries of the new wheelie bins will be completed by the end of June 2018.

Since the roll-out started in October 2017, the council has delivered 35,000 wheelie bins.

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