Salford City Council is to pilot three-weekly residual waste collections next month, becoming the third local authority (LA) in Greater Manchester to reduce the frequency of bin collections in search of reduced disposal rates.

In the week beginning 4 July, the new collection timetable for the four-bin system will begin in areas of the city. While black residual waste bins will now be taken every three weeks (instead of fortnightly), food and garden waste will still be collected weekly, with fortnightly recycling collections from blue (paper and cardboard) and brown (glass, plastic and metal packaging) bins continuing as presently.

The new system is being introduced to a selection of areas as the council seeks to save money on its waste management service. At present, disposing of waste to landfill costs the council £350 per tonne, while collected recyclable materials earn the council £25 per tonne.

The council says that if it did not make any changes, costs of disposal would increase by around £3.5 million over the next two years. In 2014/15, the council spent £17.6 million on its waste operations, while the council’s budget has been reduced by over £170 million since 2010.

Increased recycling rates achieved in the neighbouring authorities of Rochdale and Bury, which became the first English LA to adopt three-weekly collections in October 2014 and reported in August that its recycling rate rose by eight per cent in just two months following the system’s implementation, have convinced Salford to pilot a similar system, after analysis found that 35 per cent of its residual waste could be recycled.

The new system will be implemented in: Boothstown, Cadishead, Irlam, Little Hulton, Pendlebury, Swinton, Walkden and Worsley. The council estimates that it will save around £470,000 in the first year of the new system, but has said that there are not yet plans to extend the service across the rest of the city.

When the decision was made in November 2015, it was suggested that depending on the success of the pilot, every household in the borough, other than high-rises, would have the reduced frequency system by August 2017.

Waste collected by all nine Greater Manchester councils is managed by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) as part of a 25-year private finance initiative worth £4.7 billion. The GMWDA has set targets of reducing growth in waste to zero per cent by 2020 and increasing recycling and composting rates to 50 per cent the same year.

Collection of waste in Greater Manchester has therefore been standardised to the four waste streams used in Salford’s current bin system.

Three-weekly collections

Reduced frequency residual waste collections are becoming more and more common in the UK as councils seek to divert waste from the residual waste stream and into recycling collections.

Falkirk was the first LA to implement a three-weekly system. Since then, several councils have adopted the model in at least parts of their authorities, particularly in Wales where Powys, Blaenau Gwent and Gwynedd have rolled out three-weekly as they seek to meet Welsh Government targets.

In September 2015, the Scottish LA of Fife became the first in Great Britain to trial monthly bin collections across 2,000 homes. This week, the council launched a survey to gauge resident opinion on the new system, which it says has increased recycling, reduced residual waste generation and kept contamination low, while only prompting five official complaints from residents.