Changes to the recycling service offered by St. Helens Council will come into effect from today (23 September).

Under the amended service, residents will now be able to recycle food waste (in new kitchen and kerbside caddies), and cardboard (along with existing ‘dry recyclables’) on a weekly basis, with residual and garden waste on an alternate weekly collection (AWC) basis. Previously, residual waste was collected on a weekly basis; the council has said, however, that if the recycling service is used properly, only 35 per cent of waste should end up in the residual waste bin, and therefore would only need collecting every two weeks.

It added that although central government had offered funding to councils to revert to weekly waste collections, St. Helens was ‘not eligible’, as it was already on a weekly collection system.

Recycling changes

Under the system changes, the recycling service will now include up to six containers:

Collected weekly

• black box for glass and cardboard;
• pink bag for metal cans, foil, and plastic bottles;
• blue bag for paper; and
• food caddy for food waste.

Collected on an alternate weekly basis

• brown wheelie bin for residual waste; and
• green wheelie bin for garden waste (optional service).

Speaking of the changes, Cabinet Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods, Councillor Seve Gomez-Aspron, said: “These are big changes for the council, but for most residents, it will mean fairly minor adjustments.

“If anything, it will be a lot easier from now on, with everyone having just one collection day for everything – every single week. And with recycling collections taking place every week, we‘ll start to see brown bin contents – the stuff that all ends up in landfill sites – dropping dramatically. That’s good news for us and good news for the environment.”

The council has said that most households will already have all the containers they need for the system, but anyone needing new containers is advised to order them online.

All collections will take place on the same day each week, though residents have been warned that this may mean their collection date will now change.

Reasons for service change

St. Helens Council has said the changes to the recycling system have been made in the hopes of saving the council money, as government spending on public services have this year been reduced by £5 million.

It is also hoped that the change will help the council reach its 50 per cent recycling target by 2020 (currently, the council recycles 31 per cent of its waste). Earlier this year, it was found that AWC can help boost recycling rates by nine per cent and reduce collection costs.

Read more about the recycling changes in St. Helens.