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New red recycling bags will be delivered soon to help sort items, we’ll be collecting a wider range of materials, launching a new app, and switching black bin collections from fortnightly to three-weekly later this year.
As well as making recycling easier, these changes will significantly reduce the costs associated with waste disposal and instead generate annual savings of more than £1m to help fund vital local services.
Red bags
Reusable red bags for recycling household plastic and metal packaging will start to be delivered to households across North Somerset from the end of March.
This follows a very successful trial with 6,000 households.
The new red bag provides extra space for more recycling, is weighted to stop it blowing away, bigger than recycling boxes, and secures with a Velcro strip across the top to prevent litter.
A leaflet inside the bag will give full instructions and you can start using it straight away, along with your existing recycling boxes.
These weighted recycling bags are used successfully by lots of other councils across the country.
We know from our trial that they give people much more space for their weekly recycling, so there’s a lot less put in black bins.
Soft plastics
Plastic bags and wrapping, such as crisp packets, film lids, pet food pouches and vegetable wrapping, will be collected from the kerbside later this year.
These soft plastics make up 10 per cent of black bin contents and we’ll be one of the first councils in the country to collect these items.
We’ll let you know when this is being introduced.
Three-weekly black bin collections
The move to three-weekly black bin collections is in line with our Recycling and Waste strategy, which aims to reduce non-recycled waste and reach a recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2030.
Several other councils have already successfully made the switch to three-weekly bin collections, including Somerset, East Devon and Mid Devon.
We’ll be in touch directly with households to let them know when their collections will change later this year.
For anyone who has concerns, support is available.
App
A North Somerset Council app is launching in April to help make recycling even easier.
You’ll be able to set up reminders for when to put your bins out, along with receiving real-time information about the service.
Support
A team of waste minimisation officers are available to advise anyone who is looking for more support to recycle as much as they can.
People who may struggle with a three-weekly black bin collection, because of medical needs, children in disposable nappies or being a larger household, may qualify for additional capacity for their rubbish.
To request support visit our website.
Food waste
We first introduced weekly kerbside recycling collections in North Somerset 15 years ago, including food waste.
However, our analysis of black bin waste shows that almost half (45 per cent) of it could be recycled.
Of the total waste put in black bins, more than a quarter (27 per cent) was food waste, and almost half of this was unopened food still in its packaging.
If you’re not yet recycling food waste, you can find out more and request containers on our website.