Blue is the colour – New bin trail ready for roll-out

Blue bins for the recycling of card, cardboard drink cartons, paper,

envelopes, greetings cards, newspaper and magazines, catalogues and directories

are coming to Wigan borough. This will enable residents to recycle more than

they can in their white sacks and increase the borough’s recycling rate.

Currently residents are recycling a third of their household waste, but the

borough needs to up that figure to at least half. The blue bin trial for

approximately 8000 homes will assess the viability of replacing the white sack

with a blue bin to enable the wider range of materials to be recycled.

Areas have been chosen to be representative of the whole borough, so the

impact of rolling out blue bins borough-wide can be assessed.

Maps of individual properties to be included can be viewed on Wigan Council’s

website.

Hard to access properties on the “rural” collection round, which have to be

serviced by a smaller vehicle are also getting a new blue bin and a brown bin

for glass, cans and plastics. Presently these properties have very limited

recycling services.

Residents on the blue bin trial will receive a leaflet in September with

details of the service and information on how they can request a smaller bin or

stay with their white sack, if they wish.

Gail Robinson, Waste Disposal and Recycling Manager, urges residents on the

pilot to try a new standard sized blue bin, “It’s important to offer people a

choice, but we think residents will be surprised how much extra recycling they

can dispose of in a blue bin. For almost everyone, a standard sized bin, rather

than a white sack will be the better option. This is because the pilot areas

will have their paper collection every FOUR weeks not fortnightly, during the

trial period.”

The new blue bins will be delivered to residents in November, with first

collections in December. The trial will run for six months and the results will

be assessed before a decision is made whether to roll the service out across the

borough.

The Frog Lane Household Waste Recycling Centre, which has been temporarily

closed, will not be re-opened. The high cost of both carrying out essential

maintenance work and bringing the site up to a standard that will ensure the

safety of all users of the site is the reason for coming to this decision. The

Household Waste Recycling Centre at Kirkless offers a superior recycling

facility within reasonable proximity as an alternative.

• More

  information on waste and recycling in Wigan.