Thousands more brown bins in springtime recycling boost

Date published: 04 February 2012

Recycling in Bury is set to get another boost under plans to take food and garden waste bins to a further 25,000 homes.

The move is in response to a big rise in Bury’s recycling rate since a new system of waste collection started in October, and due to public demand for a brown bin from those who do not already have one.

At the moment, 57,000 households have garden waste and food waste collected from the kerbside. Extending the scheme to the remaining 25,000 homes in the borough will maximise recycling participation and further reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.
The new service will mean:

• households with gardens (approximately 5,000) will be given a 240 litre or 140 litre brown bin for kerbside recycling of garden waste and food waste.

• all 25,000 households will be given a small black kitchen caddy and free compostable liners to help make food waste recycling cleaner and easier.

• households without gardens (approximately 20,000) will be given a sealable 23 litre brown bin for kerbside recycling of food waste only, which can be transferred from the smaller kitchen caddy.

The new bins are due to be delivered in the spring. Affected households will receive information leaflets and a revised collection calendar before the new service starts.

Councillor Tony Isherwood, executive member for environment and economy, said: “Residents’ response to the changes made last year has been fantastic. Already our recycling rate has risen from 27.8% up to 43% and that’s in just over three months. In December, we collected our highest ever tonnage from the blue and green recycling bins.

“Many residents not included on the food waste recycling scheme have let us know that they want to take part so I hope they will be pleased by this announcement.

“By extending garden waste and food waste recycling to another 25,000 households we are very optimistic of getting the borough’s recycling rate to over 50%.”

For information about recycling and bin collections visit www.bury.gov.uk/recycling or phone 0161 253 5555.