The council is to switch from a fortnightly to a three-weekly residual waste service across 3,400 properties in the borough.
Service changes implemented permanently across the district will also include the introduction of charges for collection of garden waste for an annual fee of £36, and a move to a weekly food waste collection service.
Head of operational services, Ricky McCormack, said: “These are big changes to our waste and recycling service and we want everyone to be prepared to recycle more.
“A charge is being introduced for the green wheelie bin service, which means if you want to continue using your green bin, you need to register and pay, either online, over the phone or in person, whatever’s easier for you.
“Over the coming weeks, all households will receive a new food waste caddy, which will be emptied every week alongside your other recycling. We need to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and recycle more. Our leaflets being delivered with the food caddies explain what you can recycle – there really should be very little going in your black wheelie bin.
Responsibility
“We all need to take responsibility for our waste, cut down what’s going to landfill and recycle more.”
The council said the aims of the changes to service are to increase the volume of recyclable materials that can be collected every week in order to meet the national recycling targets of 50% recycling by 2020.
The changes are also intended to reduce the cost of the overall service to help meet the financial savings target of at least £340,000 annually.
The proposals were based recommendations put forward by waste consultancy Eunomia in January 2016, in a report commissioned by the council to investigate ways to reduce kerbside waste arisings, increase recycling performance and reduce service costs.
The report found that coupled with a mixed plastics, WEEE, batteries and weekly food waste collection, only a minimal amount of waste should remain and which could facilitate a three-weekly service.
A growing number of councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have moved towards a three-weekly residual collection cycle in recent years. Bury was one of the first in England to introduce the system in October 2014.
Nearby East Devon council is also set to expand its three-weekly residual waste collection service to a further 50,000 households, following the first phase of the roll-out in Exmouth in February.
The impact of three-weekly residual waste collections on civic amenity sites will be discussed at letsrecycle.com’s National Civic Amenity Site Conference, taking place on 14 June. www.ncas-conf.com
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