North Kesteven households look set to get fourth wheelie bin in September in countywide recycling push

Plans before today’s (Thursday, June 24) executive board meeting of the district council will see purple-lidded bins, for paper and card only, rolled out to all homes in the district as part of a countywide push for improvement in recycling rates and consistency in collection.

The separation of paper and cardboard waste into a fourth bin was trialled in 2019 by the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership of county and district councils in three areas to improve the quality of the waste for recycling and increase recycling rates by keeping it dry and not contaminated.

The councils want to contribute to UK recycling targets of 55 per cent by 2025.

Officers say that currently, the quality of Lincolnshire’s recycling is poor, with around 30 per cent of recycling collected countywide classed as ‘contaminated’. The trial in North Kesteven saw the collection of 100 tonnes of quality paper and card from 1,700 homes in villages in the middle of the district. Samples showed an average contamination of just 17 per cent.

If recommended and approved by the full council on July 15 separate paper and card would be first collected from September 27. All properties will be provided with an additional purple lidded bin for paper and card collected alternately with the green-lidded bin on a fortnightly basis, says the report.

Arrangements will be made for properties unable to accommodate an additional bin or which use communal bins and contaminated bins would not be rejected.

The bins will be funded by the county council from reduced disposal costs, as well as employing a team of officers to promote the scheme and monitor quality of materials collected.

They would then move on to assist in the roll outs in the other districts in the county.