Recycling boom sees end of weekly bin round

Subject to Cabinet approval next week, East Riding Council has announced plans to reduce the frequency of green bin collections to fortnightly instead of weekly, and increase that of blue bin collections to fortnightly instead of monthly.

The move follows a series of successful trials across 20,000 households in the borough that have seen recycling rates reach between 60 and 70 per cent, and the amount of waste being sent to landfill via the green bins being cut by more than 30 per cent.

The authority said it was responding to residents’ appeals for more blue bin recycling capacity, which resulted in a corresponding drop in the amount of waste being left for landfill.

The current fortnightly brown bin collections, for food, garden and cardboard waste, will continue.

A report to be considered by the Cabinet shows the changes would bring potential annual savings of more than £1.2m, including £775,000 in waste collection savings and the avoidance of £468,000 in landfill tax, which is charged per tonne.

At the same time, the council expects to make a one-off payment of about £300,000 for new bins and caddies, while also spending just under £2m on 12 new waste disposal vehicles, and a similar amount upgrading its household waste recycling depots in Hessle (Humberfield) and Driffield.

There are expected to be 21 job losses over an 11-month period, but these will come from natural wastage and the ranks of the 43 temporary staff among the 225 waste collection workforce. No permanent staff will be made redundant, the council said, and the remaining temporary staff will be offered full-time contracts.

There will be a reduction of about seven collection rounds overall.

The 70-strong fleet of vehicles will be cut by seven, again with the changes coming among hired vehicles.

The council has spent three years preparing the ground in anticipation of the changes, and as such expects a smooth transition.

The report said staff and trade unions had been briefed on all the changes in the past few years and staff had “responded magnificently”.

If approved, the rollout of the new service to all 149,000 households is expected to begin in April and take 10 months to complete.

Council leader Stephen Parnaby said he believed the changes would put the East Riding “among the top authorities in the country” for recycling, adding: “The bottom line is little is going into people’s green bins and the public are saying to us we want to recycle more and this is just responding.

“We haven’t done this as a knee-jerk reaction, it’s a long-term plan with several millions of pounds of investment in waste segregation and we are very confident because the public are on our side.”

Coun Symon Fraser, portfolio holder for environment, housing and planning, said: “Some authorities see fortnightly collections as a way to move residents to do more recycling; our approach from the complete outset is we don’t need to move residents to recycle, because in this Olympic year they are gold medallists at it.”

The first five phases of the rollout would start in the Hedon area, followed by Bridlington, Willerby, Market Weighton and Goole.