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At a meeting of our Executive on Wednesday, councillors agreed unanimously to make changes to our waste and recycling services to help boost recycling rates and cut the costs of waste disposal for local taxpayers.
The changes will be introduced in phases in 2025 and include:
- introducing a kerbside collection of soft plastics (such as crisp packets and vegetable packaging)
- switching to three-weekly collections of non-recyclable (black bin) rubbish, from fortnightly.
Weekly collections of food waste and recycling will remain unchanged, plus the optional chargeable regular garden waste service.
A new recycling container will be trialled at some properties over the coming months and training for crews will be refreshed.
A team of waste minimisation officers will be available to answer anyone’s concerns and offer more support to help people recycle as much as they can.
Additional support will be given to anyone who may struggle with a three-weekly black bin collection because of medical needs, children in disposable nappies or being a larger household. If necessary, a slightly different solution could be put in place for that household.
Treating and disposing of black bin rubbish costs local council tax payers about £130 per tonne.
This year we will need to spend about £5m to dispose of black bin rubbish, but almost half of this waste could instead be recycled and generate an income to help pay for vital local services.
Our separated kerbside recycling collections result in a high quality of recycling material, which can be sold and made into new materials and generates an income of about £30 per tonne.
It’s estimated the new collections will generate an estimated £1.1m of savings a year thanks to reduced costs of black bin rubbish disposal and an increase in revenue from selling additional recyclable materials.
Certain properties already have slightly different collection arrangements in place and will not be suitable for the new services, and will be notified about future arrangements.
Several other local councils in the south west have already successfully made the switch to three-weekly non-recyclable rubbish collections, including Somerset, East Devon, and Mid-Devon. All have seen a reduction in non-recyclable waste, an increase in recycling rates and a financial saving.
Read our ambitious recycling and waste strategy on our website.