Sutton Council to increase recycling with one brown waste bin policy

 

In order to encourage increased recycling and help reduce the cost of waste collection, Sutton Council is introducing a policy to only empty non-recyclable waste from one brown bin per borough household.

​There are now fewer items that cannot be recycled from home as a result of Sutton’s green bin recycling service. However, around 4,500 of the borough’s 65,100 households have more than one brown bin for their non-recyclable waste and do not have any incentive to recycle.

Households with more than one brown waste bin will receive letters between 18 July and 30 September 2016 to tell them about the new policy. A Recycling Advisor will deliver the letters, answer questions and provide information about the council’s recycling service. Households will also be able to order larger or extra green recycling bins to help them recycle.

Collections of waste in the additional brown bins will stop at the property around three or four weeks after the letter has been received by the household. ​Households in Wallington North will be the first to receive the letters and the timing of the change will be staggered according to the area.

The council will remove from households any additional brown bins placed outside on any waste collection day that follows a specified date. However, residents can keep their additional brown bin for storage or to collect garden waste in before taking it to the Reuse and Recycling Centre at Kimpton Park Way. To ensure their additional brown bin is not removed, residents will need to keep it inside their property boundary.

Mary Morrissey, Strategic Director of Environment, Housing and Regeneration at Sutton Council, said:

“Collecting just one brown waste bin per property will save the council money and increase the amount of waste being recycled in Sutton. The additional brown bins that the council empties contain 100 tonnes of materials that could be recycled every year. Instead these materials are being disposed of in landfill. Emptying one bin per property will therefore help us save money, increase the borough’s recycling rate and support the council’s One Planet Sutton ambitions. A study by independent environmental experts indicates that council collection costs can be reduced by £10,000 a year by only collecting one bin per property.”

This new waste and recycling policy was agreed by Sutton Council in November 2015.

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