Latest news and future plans
New Legislation on Waste Electrical and Electronic items - June 2007
New European legislation called the WEEE Directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), came into force in June 2007. It aims to increase the re-use and recycling of electrical and electronic waste so that the amount being landfilled and incinerated is dramatically reduced. The new law states that retailers and manufacturers are responsible for dealing with electrical goods once they become waste. They are encouraged to make more durable, repairable and recyclable electrical goods, as well as pay for more recycling sites for consumers.
Electrical and electronic items should therefore no longer be placed in your landfill bin and should be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Sites where they can be recycled in accordance to the new directive. Alternatively, some stores will accept the items back for recycling providing you are buying the same item from them at the time.
Crown goes rural (Crown caddy scheme) - May 2007
Due to recent national legislation which will require all households to have at least 2 materials collected from the kerbside by 2010, and in addition national targets to divert biodegradable waste from disposal at landfill, the Council have had to consider other options for collecting recyclables in rural areas.
We have therefore introduced a kerbside service into Forest Row and Danehill which will also tackle waste minimisation. Each household is issued with another bin for green waste and cardboard, a blue caddy for paper and a red caddy for cans and plastic bottles. The collection is an alternate weekly collection and will only require one split compartment lorry to collect all the materials over the fortnightly period instead of the current setup, where a second vehicle is collecting the dry recyclables. If the scheme is successful we hope to use this as a template to expand the scheme to all rural areas who are currently not on the CROWN scheme.
Results of the Waste Collection Review (Should Crown be expanded) - June 2004
The main focus of the review was to consider whether the Crown recycling scheme should be expanded and if so how. The review considered several other policy issues such as missed bins, provision for larger households, bank holiday collections and changes in legislation.
The recommendations are that the Crown scheme should expand geographically as soon as economic circumstances permit, that we look to work towards improving the economic conditions which prevent the expansion and that we commence a trial collection of plastic bottles as part of the Crown scheme.
The remaining policy and operational issues have been incorporated into a five year improvement plan. Bank holiday collections remain unchanged and we are asking residents to label their wheelie bins to reduce the risk of containers going missing and needing to be replaced.
Crown expansion gets approved - August 1999
CROWN (composting and Recycling Our Waste Now) was approved for expansion to cover all the larger towns in 1999, this has taken 3½ years to introduce because of the complexity of the service. Residents are issued with a 240 litre bin for green waste and a blue box for paper, cans and foil. The pattern of collections is carried out on an alternate weekly basis, with the bin for green waste and blue box being emptied one week and the landfill bin the following week. This segregated collection pattern allows a greater proportion of household waste to be recycled of composted.
37,000 properties in the following areas are covered by the CROWN service
| Area | Phase | Date phase started |
| Uckfield - Rocks Park, West Park area | Pilot | June 1998 |
| Willingdon and Wannock | Phase One | October 1999 |
| Polegate, Stone Cross, Westham and Pevensey | Phase Two | May 2000 |
| Pevensey Bay | Phase Three (i) | October 2000 |
| Most of Hailsham | Phase Three (ii) | March 2001 |
Rest of Hailsham (Hailsham East, Town Centre & Gleneagles area), Hellingly, Horsebridge, Herstmonceux, Windmill Hill and East Dean. |
Phase Four (i) | June 2001 |
| Heathfield, Horam and Broad Oak | Phase Four (ii) | February 2002 |
| Uckfield | Phase Five | June 2002 |
| Part of Crowborough ( Montargis, Whitehill, Beeches & London Road area) | Phase Six (i) | October 2002 |
| Part of Crowborough - (The Warren, Mill Lane, Millbrook Road, Alderbrook & Jarvis Brook areas) | Phase Six (ii) | February 2003 |
