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Lincolnshire to roll out paper collections

Lincolnshire county council has said it will roll out a separate paper and card collection service for all its residents by 2024, after a successful trial run.

Purple bins and sacks were rolled out across the county as part of the trial

The council began a year-long trial on 2 September 2019,  which saw a twin-stream system trialled with paper and card collected separately from other commingled recyclable materials.

More than 7,200 households in three districts – North Kesteven, Boston and South Holland  – took part, with the council saying almost 420 tonnes of “clean paper and card” was collected, all of which was recycled domestically.

Schedule

Now, the council says Boston borough is scheduled to be first to roll out the service in Spring 2021, followed by North Kesteven in Autumn 2021 with a further rollout to the county’s other districts by 2024.

Cllr Eddy Poll, executive councillor for waste and recycling at Lincolnshire county council, said: “As well as only putting paper and card in a separate bag/bin, residents have done a great job of only putting plastic pots, tubs & trays, glass, tin & cans in their recycling bins – significantly reducing the contamination and increasing recycling rates.

“For us to continue to do the right thing for our communities and for the environment, the right thing to do is extend this to all households in Lincolnshire, over the next few years.

“We will work with residents to make sure they have the right size containers for their home, and in the run up to the roll out, council staff will run engagement sessions and workshops in the community to help residents get the right thing in the right bin.”

The council also released the below video highlighting the success of the trial.

Lincolnshire county council is made up of nine collection authorities: North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, West Lindsay, East Lindsay, Lincoln, North Kesteven, Boston, South Kesteven and South Holland.

Contamination

When the trial was first launched in July 2019, Lincolnshire’s Joint Waste Partnership says it is pursuing the trial ‘due to the changing markets and the requirement to increase the quality of mixed dry recyclables (see letsrecycle.com story).

Contamination in the county was put at 30% at the time.

No additional RCVs will be required and there will be no additional collection rounds. Instead paper and card collections and other recycling collections will be carried out on alternate weeks.

The move will also ensure the council complies with any regulations relating to consistent collections.

In Defra’s first consultation, Defra set out which widely-recyclable material should be included, such as plastic bottles and plastic pots, tubs and trays, glass packaging (bottles and jars), paper and card, and metal packaging (see letsrecycle.com story).

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