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August 2021 August 2021

We returned at 5pm as Janet had told The budget for waste collection at Dorset Council is around £32M. Just over £15M

us that the tide would recede enough of this is in disposal of the waste. The collection vehicles and staff are operated
for the sea to reveal the pool by from six depots across the county. As of this month all homes in the county have
around 5.30pm. the same service, a weekly food waste collection and a fortnightly black bin
collection and recycling collection with a separate glass and battery collection
As we walked through the tunnels to on this week. We collect about 190,000 tons a year, and over 60% of this is
the ladies beach my mind raced recycled. We are proud to be in the top five for our waste services in the country
back over half a century when I had and would even reach the top spot if our collections were not more expensive
my first Christmas Day swim there. Of than urban authorities due to our rural area. All our waste is collected and taken
course the Ilfracombe Tunnels go to transfer stations where it is bulked up and taken in larger vehicles for
back a lot further and was opened processing.
nearly 200 years ago in 1823.

As bathing and the ‘art of swimming’ Black Bin Waste
became more popular in Victorian times, local entrepreneurs employed welsh
miners to hand carve six tunnels through the hillside to gain access to the A normal dustcart can hold ten tons of compacted black bin waste. Each full
wonderful Devon coastline which lay beyond. Four of these tunnels are still open lorry costs the council approximately £1200 to dispose of the contents after the
to the public today. From this, the town grew from a tiny fishing village to a busy costs of collection. After bulking up the waste is delivered to a site near Wimborne
seaside resort. operated by New Earth Solutions. Here the waste is treated and any
compostable materials like food waste, garden waste and dog poo are removed
The pools were built between the natural curve of the rocks using boulders and and treated in a high temperature plant to sterilise. The residual from this process
lime mortar for the retaining walls. It took hundreds of men 18 months to build the is then used to back fill large quarries like the china clay quarries in Cornwall. Any
tidal pools. The lime used was brought in by ship from a kiln sited at a nearby tins are taken out for recycling and the residual matter including film, nappies,
cove. and you know what else you put in the black bin!! is compacted and wrapped
like big bale silage. These are then taken for refuse derived fuel, large incinerators
Of course, the dramatic coastline remains virtually unaltered to this very day and that create electricity and which also use the heat in outer outlets. Currently the
it lies within a designated ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is also a bulk of or waste goes to Europe where the plants are very efficient. However,
designated Conservation Area and voluntary ‘Marine Conservation Area’.
from September this will go to a new state of the art plant at Bridgewater and the
Bathing facilities were the first essential at any fashionable seaside resort and as heat is going to be piped to the Muller dairy close to the site.
Ilfracombe began to expand in early Victorian times, it set out to improve
provision for those who wished to bathe in the sea and for those who wished to Garden Waste
seek sea-water cures in the comfort of a bath-house.
The brown bin garden waste is
In this period bathing was seen as bulked up at the transfer stations
an aid to health rather than as a and the household recycling
pleasure. There was strict centres and mostly taken to Eco
segregation of the sexes with the Solutions at Parley for Windrow
l a d i e s b e i n g a l l o c a t e d composting. There are two other
Wildersmouth Beach and the small facilities at Stourpaine and
gentlemen took a short boat trip to Weymouth. The material is put
Crewkhorne Cove. Men bathed in through a massive shredder and
the nude in those days. laid out in long lines to compost.
Segregated bathing was tightly The whole site is about 8 acres
controlled between the Ladies and but does wood recycling as well.
the Gentlemen’s pools with a It is quite a scientific process with probes regularly monitoring the temperature ups
bugler employed to blow an alarm and downs to determine when the heap need to be turned. The material is then
sold in bulk to landscapers and the like.

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