The council, under its contract with waste management company Cleanaway, is offering its 100,000 residents the choice of a 140, 180, 240 or 340 litre Otto bins.
John Bownas, the London borough's project officer for environmental services, said the choice was up to residents, however they would be advised with regard to the size of their family.
He explained: “We are trusting residents to be sensible about the choice they make. The idea is that they think carefully about the waste they are producing. If people do not express a preference we are giving them a 180 litre bin.”
The council began its staggered role out of the new residual bins last week with a batch of 6,000 to the Field Way area. Mr Bownas said: “About 70% to 80% of people are choosing to stick to the 180 litre bins, which is what they've always had and the rest are choosing a mixture of the other sizes”.
He admitted that getting out four different sizes of bins to residents could be a “logistical nightmare” but he said: “By and large, this is the fairest way of doing things. There are families with a large number of people which we need to consider. We are also very tough on side waste.”
Bin chipping
Each of the new bins is fitted with a micro-chip. Initially this is to track the whereabouts of the bins, but the council will also use them to look at areas which produce the most waste in order to target recycling campaigns accordingly.
“Croydon is a large area, so we want to know whether there are any specific areas where we need to target our recycling messages,” explained Mr Bownas.
He added the exact specification of what the chips will report is still being decided, but he said the main thing was to ensure all the bins had them.
“We see chipping as the way things are going and while we are getting new bins we felt we might as well add the chips as they are ten times more expensive to retrofit later,” he told letsrecycle.com.
Mr Bownas added that council had no plans to charge residents based on the amount of waste they produce or for not recycling.
Croydon came under fire in the national press earlier this year over the plans to chip bins. Some residents and campaign groups complained that the council was adopting an 'Orwellian' approach to waste.
The council will continue to collect residual waste weekly. Croydon also collects glass, textiles, cans and paper on a weekly basis in a 55 litre container.
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