The council revealed this week that it is replacing 75,000 garden waste bags with bigger wheeled bins in a bid to meet a growing demand for green waste recycling capacity.
Bins have been provided by Plastic Omnium, with new collections starting all week. Collections will not include food waste, which is currently only being taken from a pilot area of 20,000 homes.
The move comes as Biffa takes over from Veolia Environmental Services in a 14-year deal to collect waste and recyclable material from 145,000 households, (see letsrecycle.com story).
Biffa hopes to increase the Wirral's recycling rate from 12% at present to 33% in 2007/08 through a series of measures to encourage recycling participation, including alternate weekly collections for recycling and residual waste from October.
Tonnage
Speaking on Tuesday, Ben Parker, assistant recycling officer, told letsrecycle.com: “The new bins are in line with our new waste collection contract with Biffa who took over collections today. Our green waste scheme has been going since March 2004 and the tonnage has been really good – many people had more garden waste than they could fit in their sacks – so we are giving them extra capacity.”
David Green, Wirral's director of technical services, said: “Residents in the borough who have had the old white bag will get a new bin and therefore everyone is contributing to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and improving our environment.
He added: “Removing organic waste is especially important as when it rots it releases methane gas which contributes to climate change.”
The Wirral, which is a member of the Merseyside Waste Disposal authority, sends its garden waste to an open windrow composting facility run by George Whitaker and sons in Hapsford.
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The council is keen to extend its use of MWDA's in-vessel composting facility at Bidston, which will allow it to accept food waste in with all green waste collections.
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