We have invested in a brand new fleet of recycling and waste vehicles to improve services in the bay, with the first few arriving in time for Christmas.

Nine new recycling vehicles have been delivered to Torbay, with a further 11 due next year. In addition, six residual waste collection vehicles are being delivered in January.

These new vehicles have the ability to collect more recycling as they optimise the load space, meaning they can stay out longer and return less to the recycling depot to offload. This is done by moving plastics and cans to the upper deck via a vertical loader which gives a maximum capacity of 850 kg.

They also include a new heavy duty cardboard compaction system which can compact up to one tonne of cardboard. The new vehicles have also been designed to reduce the noise of glass being collected.

Councillor Mike Morey Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Environment and Culture for Torbay Council, said: “We’re very pleased to be able to upgrade our fleet of waste and recycling vehicles and we are always looking at ways that we can improve our service and make it more efficient for residents. We are also introducing new technology including giving frontline staff being handheld devices (tablets) from early 2020 so that work instructions can be communicated to teams in real-time.

“We know that Christmas is a time of year when people have a lot more waste and recycling due to all the presents, so it’s fantastic that we are getting these new vehicles in time.”

We agreed with our joint venture company partner Kier that the current TOR2 contract will now come to an end on the 30 June 2020, to be replaced by a new company, which will be called Swisco (South West Integrated Services Company). The first directors’ meeting was recently held for the new company, and a business plan for the new company is currently being drafted.

Not sure what can be recycled? You can check on the recycling boxes page and you can also find out about Christmas bin collections.