Gateshead Council chiefs sign off phasing out of paper recycling caddies

Council bosses have approved plans for phasing out of paper recycling caddies as usage continue to decline.

Gateshead Council's cabinet has approved recommendations for the gradual phasing out of paper recycling caddies within existing bins as well as the procurement of new bin wagons.

According to council documents, paper tonnage collected has fallen from 3,452 tonnes in 2014/15 to just 721 tonnes in 2024/25. The drop has also been identified across South Tyneside and Sunderland, with paper recycling making only 3.7% and 3.4% in overall tonnage collected now.

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A council report also revealed that Gateshead Council spends around £45,000 a year on buying new, stolen or lost caddies.

The council's report also states that recent information from the Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs has confirmed that it will allow co-collection of dry recyclable waste streams in one bin rather than separately and without the need for environmental or economic review. In light of this, the council will now be looking to obtain smaller, younger, and more efficient "single body" vehicles to collect waste, now that paper no longer needs to be separated before collection.

Gateshead chiefs have also approved spending over £6m on 29 new bin wagons. Currently, the council has 36 vehicles, 32 of which are more than seven years old.

According to the local authority's report: "The vehicles used for collections are at their maximum age limit where failures and breakdowns are happening on a weekly basis."

It continued: "...the fleet supplying the collections for waste have now reached breaking point and recent failures to collect in areas within Gateshead has highlighted the need to make a decision on which collection models we will proceed with and the vehicles that will be needed."