The Borough Council of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire will begin sorting through its residents’ ‘side waste’ – bags of residual waste left next to full bins – from tomorrow (27 March) as part of a pilot project to reduce the amount of waste the council sends to landfill.

The council currently collects residual waste bins every other week, and does not accept black bin side waste as it ‘increases landfill costs and reduces recycling rates’. Nonetheless, some householders regularly put out extra waste bags for collections, which, the council says, can then ‘end up as litter that has to be picked up by street cleaners’ if they’re left uncollected and not .

As such, over the coming weeks, any black bin bags left out in addition to a full black wheelie bin will be opened and monitored by employees from Wellingborough Norse, the council's waste services partner, to determine the contents of the waste. The employees will then visit the householder (if they ‘consider [they] would benefit from advice and support’) to ensure they understand which materials can be recycled.

Householders who live on Minerva Way are specifically being targeted, as the council identified it as a ‘hotspot for side waste’.

According to the council, if people recycle correctly, they should be able to ‘easily’ contain their household waste in their black wheelie bins.

Councillor Peter Morrall, Chairman of the council's community committee, commented: "It's our current policy that side waste put out with the black bins should not be collected. This is to encourage residents to separate their rubbish and recycle more. Landfill tax alone is £80 per tonne [from April 2014], not including disposal charge, and this goes up every year [set to rise in line with the Retail Price Index from April 2015]. This is taxpayers' money and it could be much better spent.

"However, if people put out extra black bin bags and we don't collect them, the bags can split open and rubbish blows everywhere. We then have to pick it up as litter. It seems ridiculous that on the one hand we ask refuse collectors to leave bags as they're not supposed to collect them, but on the other we ask our street cleansing teams to pick them up on their rounds so we don't get litter everywhere. We need to find a solution to this problem."

He added that the purpose of the pilot project was not to punish people, but to “make [them] aware of why side waste isn't acceptable” and to advise them on ways to reduce the amount of black bin waste they produce.

He added that the council does not intend to take enforcement action ‘at this stage’, but will just be identifying “where these extra bags are coming from and whether or not the contents could be recycled rather than dumped in landfill”.

If successful, the project could be extended to other areas of the town.

Although Wellingborough council does not accept side waste in black bags, it does accept side waste of recyclable material, as long as it isn't placed in black bags and can be easily identified as recyclable material.

Find out more about waste and recycling in Wellingborough.