A trial for recycling wheelie bins is being considered as part of a move towards providing a “tailor-made” refuse collection for Brighton and Hove.
Members of the city council’s environment committee are being asked to give the go ahead for the pilot for 4,300 homes in the Hangleton and Portslade areas, in a bid to boost the city’s notoriously low recycling rates. If approved, the trial could start in November.
Until now, all city residents benefitting from kerbside collections use black boxes to store their paper, card, cans and plastic bottles for recycling.
Residents are asked to keep glass in a separate box to maintain the quality of recycling as shards of glass mixed with paper can hamper recycling. Many households need several boxes to store all their recycling.
The contents of the boxes were originally sorted on the roadside by Cityclean workers. However, the recent replacement of recycling collection vehicles combined with the sorting facility at Hollingdean, means that kerbside recycling can now be collected using wheelie bins.
Only glass needs to be collected separately to maintain recycling quality.
Under the trial, residents will be issued with 240 litre wheelie bins (larger than the 140 litre standard issue wheelie bin for refuse collection) for recycling along with a box for glass. Any properties which are unable to store a wheelie bin on their property can continue to have their recycling collected in boxes. The collection frequency will remain the same.
The bins are expected to increase the amount of recycling collected and will be easier to handle for residents and Cityclean staff
Other advantages include keeping paper and cardboard dry, and avoiding contents been blown away in windy weather.
Many areas of the city, where homes have adequate storage facilities, could benefit from recycling wheelie bins which are easy to use, and will improve the efficiency of the collection service.
Following the trial, which is expected to cost around £135,000, officers will assess the scheme and its effect on recycling rates, and consider feedback from residents before deciding whether to explore extending the scheme to other areas.
Councillor Gill Mitchell, chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee said: “We know there is a strong demand from residents living in suburban areas of the city for recycling wheelie bins. Therefore I am pleased that members of the environment committee have been asked consider this scheme.
“This could be a major step towards our commitment to provide a more ‘tailor made’ recycling service for all our residents.”
This is great news. This was part of the Green plan to improve recycling. The new trucks were needed first which were delayed in production. Communal recycling is best for the city centres and wheelie-bin recyling is best for the outer areas.
This article is factually wrong. Much of Hove has had communal recycling bins for a few years now. Recycling rates have been decimated as bins are very difficult to access, overfilled every week, and no glass is collected.
It would REALL HELP if the communal recycle bins were emptied more often…
First stage in dropping weekly refuse collections.
Targets are now saving money not the environment.
Problem is and remains the expensive waste contract with Veolia preventing waste such as glass being processed locally making new employment by turning waste into product.