Bury council to move to three-weekly collections

Bury council in Greater Manchester is set to become the first local authority in England to collect residual household waste once every three weeks, after councillors approved plans to switch from a fortnightly service at a meeting yesterday (July 16).

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of changes to the boroughs collection regime, with the new service set to come into effect from the second week of October.

Under the new regime, grey bins for residual waste will be collected every three weeks rather than the current two, while blue and green dry recycling bins will be collected every three weeks rather than four. Brown bin collections of food and garden waste will remain fortnightly.

The Labour-run council says that most households will continue to have a collection of at least one type of waste every week.

Concerns

Burys plans, outlined last week, have proved controversial among some residents and the council has sought to allay concerns raised over the reduction in the frequency of collections.

Speaking after the decision was taken yesterday, councillor Susan Southworth, deputy cabinet member for the environment, said: Back in 2011, when the grey bins moved to a fortnightly collection, many people had concerns and questions then. But the vast majority of residents were able to cope, and Burys recycling rate shot up from 29% to 47%. But, given that we know that up to 75% of household waste can be recycled at the kerbside, we know we can and must do more.

She added: It costs Bury 10.2 million a year to treat and dispose of waste from grey bins, much of which could be recycled. As in 2011, we need the support of residents to create a greener borough and make sure that money doesnt go to waste but rather goes to help support other public services.

The council, which estimates that it recycled around 47% of its household waste in 2013/14, hopes that changes to its collection service could help to push its recycling rate up to 60% by March 2016.

Savings

According to Bury council every 1% improvement in its recycling rate will save it up to 130,000 in treatment and disposal costs.

The council estimates that by reducing collection frequency instead of purchasing newer, smaller capacity bins it can avoid a capital outlay of 1.1 million for the 70,000 140-litre-capacity containers needed to keep a fortnightly service.

It also predicts that the proposed change could result in net savings of around 862,000 per year from 2015/16, and there would be no increase in operational costs or job losses.

A reduction in residual waste is also expected to save the council money, with treatment and disposal of black bin waste costing the authority a total of 283, compared to 61 for the treatment of garden and food waste and an income of 25 for every tonne of recyclable material produced.