Thurrock council rolls out three-bin service

From this week (September 7) the council has started implementing a three bin system for homes in South Ockendon in the west of the unitary authority. The bins have been supplied by Rotherham-based MGB Titan.

Up until now, residents have had a blue box for dry recyclables- including paper, card, glass bottles and jars, cans, foil, aerosols, plastic bottles and bags, a green bin for residual waste and a green bag for green waste.

However, residents will now receive a 240 litre blue wheeled bin for dry recyclables, a 240 litre brown wheeled bin for garden and kitchen waste and, when they need new residual waste bins, they will be provided with a smaller grey wheeled bin.

The council hopes that the increased capacity will help it improve its recycling rate from 33% to 60%.

Joining staff at the first stage of the roll-out, councillor Mike Revell, cabinet member for environment, said: “It seemed to work very smoothly. There were plenty of questions, but everybody I spoke to was generally in favour of the programme which will see massive increases in recycling and composting in Thurrock and therefore with a corresponding reduction in landfill.

“One resident was concerned because he will really struggle to move the bins when they're full. I helped him move his garden waste from the green sack to the brown bin and explained about our assisted collection service.

“Another wanted smaller residual waste bins, but he understood the difficulties and expense when I told him that having differing sized bins would greatly increase the costs to residents,” he added.

Side Waste

Introduction of the three-bin scheme coincides with Thurrock ceasing the collection of side waste, with the council urging residents to make use of the extra capacity. Side waste collections will now only be picked up over the Christmas and New Year holidays and during times of “significant delays” to the collection service.

Collection of the new bin service is set to be carried out by the council's waste collection contractor, Veolia Environmental Services, and the dry recyclable material will continue to be taken to the company's materials recycling facility five miles away at Rainham for sorting. Compost is taken to Veolia sites at Rainham and Pitsea.

The contract with Veolia is set to expire at the end of March 2010 and Thurrock is currently in the tendering process with a view to increasing the range of materials it can collect at the kerbside.