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Last year more than £4m was spent processing the black bin waste produced in North Somerset, at £138 per tonne.
Local households generate about 90,000 tonnes of waste a year, and last year 40,000 tonnes was put into black bins.
But 18,000 tonnes of this black bin waste could have been recycled instead, saving money and protecting the environment.
An analysis of North Somerset’s black bin waste found that almost half (45 per cent) could have been 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.
However, our separated kerbside recycling collections result in high quality material we can sell for about £30 per tonne, to be made into new materials.
The move to three-weekly black bin collections is also in-line with our Recycling and Waste strategy, which aims to reach a recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2030.
New collection routes take into consideration all the new houses which have been built across North Somerset since the routes were originally devised, as well as the roads which need specialist vehicles, to provide a more efficient and reliable service.
Several other councils have already made the switch to three-weekly non-recyclable rubbish collections.
All have seen an increase in recycling rates, a reduction in non-recyclable waste and a financial saving.