Hackney council has launched a consultation on plans to move to a fortnightly residual waste collection for street-level properties, as part of plans to boost its 27% recycling rate.
And, the council said that crews will check recycling sacks to ensure they only contain accepted materials.
Properties with communal bins will not be affected by the proposals
The proposals in the consultation, which runs until 9th December, will not affect flats above shops or properties with communal bins.
The council said the measures are in response to a need to “do more to reduce the amount of waste we send to be incinerated or to landfill, where it releases harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”
It pointed to research which suggested that in Hackney, over half of the rubbish people currently throw away in their residual bins could have been recycled or composted.
However, because crews will continue to collect recycling weekly under the proposals, the council insisted that it is not a cost-saving measure.
A statement from the council said: “The changes are aimed solely at increasing the amount residents recycle. However, as it is set to cost us more to throw away waste in the coming years, we hope that recycling more and throwing away less rubbish will save money on our disposal costs in the longer term.”
Bin checks
In order to ease fears about residents placing non-recyclable rubbish in with their weekly mixed collection, the council said waste crews will “check recycling sacks to make sure they only contain recyclable material that we accept.”
If bins are found to have non-recyclable material, they will not be collected and a notice will be left explaining that the contaminants need to be removed for the next collection day.
Hackney council is also currently considering what type of bin to provide to households in the borough as part of these changes. This will mean that any residents who can’t fit their residual waste into the new bin won’t have any excess waste collected, as it “probably means you are not recycling as much as you could”.
In-house
Crews will check recycling bags to ensure they’re not contaminated as part of the changes
Hackney council has run an in-house waste collection service since 2013, when its contract with May Gurney came to an end.
The service currently offers a mixed weekly collection of glass, plastic, paper and card and cans, along with a separate food and residual bin. Under the new plans, residual will move to fortnightly and everything else will remain the same.
The council has said it hopes this will encourage more people to “use their weekly recycling and food waste collections”.
The post Hackney council consults on fortnightly collections appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
