The decision, made by the council’s cabinet in May 2020, is “set to go ahead as planned” and is in attempt to boost the councils 27.9% recycling rate and meet targets set in the Mayor of London’s environment strategy.
It will see households receive a 180 litre wheeled bin roll out, which will give residents a maximum of 5-6 black bin bags of space every fortnight, but this will not affect flats above shops or properties with communal bins.
Recycling and food waste collections will remain in place every week to “encourage people to recycle as much as possible”.
The local authority added that waste crews will be checking recycling sacks to ensure that they only contain the accepted materials.
The plans followed research by the council which suggested that over half of the rubbish people throw away in their residual bins could have been recycled or composted.
The implementation of fortnightly waste collections has been seen across other councils, with the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s cabinet being the latest to approve the measure in September 2020.
Consultation
It follows a consultation where the council outlined the proposals in October 2019, however it only received 39% of respondents supporting the plans.
“We are carrying out further engagement with groups that identified concerns with the proposals”
The council said that predominant concerns of the 52% that did not support the proposals, were smell, health, vermin and overflowing bins.
In response to these concerns, the council said: “We are giving every household a 180 litre wheeled bin, which, coupled with increased food recycling rates, will help to improve hygiene and reduce vermin. We are carrying out further engagement with groups that identified concerns with the proposals, and carrying out work to ensure that vulnerable people don’t find it harder to put out rubbish as a result of the proposals.”
Contractors
The local authority has operated an in-house collection service since 2013, and sends its kerbside recyclables to Biffa’s Edmonton material recycling facility (MRF).
Its residual waste is processed at the Edmonton energy from waste plant, which is operated by LondonEnergy for the North London Waste Authority.
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