Households in Kirklees are to get a third – blue – wheelie bin to recycle paper and cardboard – but food waste collection has been put on hold.
The Government has introduced a new policy called Simpler Recycling which aims to standardise waste collection across England to end the ‘postcode lottery’ of what can be recycled.
The Government wants all councils to collect food and garden waste; paper and card; dry recyclables (glass, metal and plastic including food/drink cartons); and general waste.
Kirklees Council currently doesn’t collect glass but the Government says it must be introduced. It also says that glass and paper and card can’t be mixed as broken glass contaminates the paper, meaning separate bins are required.
Going forward, the plan is for glass, foil and Tetrapak to be added to what currently goes into green bins.
One of the Government’s key requirements is for food waste to be collected and recycled, however Kirklees Council says it’s not affordable without help from the Government.
Kirklees Council’s 25-year waste contract with SUEZ expired in 2023 and there’s a short-term extension in place through to 2028 when the council expects to sign a new long-term contract to cover all the Government requirements.
Because the council is in talks over the new contract, the Government has given Kirklees until 2028 to introduce a food waste collection. But, given the uncertainty over costs and funding, it seems likely to be well beyond 2028 before food collection comes to Kirklees.
Speaking at a meeting of the council’s Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Panel, Will Acornley, head of operational services, said that blue bins may start to be rolled out towards the end of 2027.
The council will have to buy – and deliver – around 190,000 bins for all homes across the district, at a total cost of £4.3 million.
The purchase of the bins will have to be approved by Cabinet, probably in October this year, and it will take around 12 months before the roll-out starts. It will take around three to six months to deliver the bins to everyone.
Mr Acornley said there would be no change to routes or rounds. Grey bins will be collected every fortnight, as they are now, with the green bin and the blue bin alternating. For example, week 1 grey bin; week 2 blue bin; week 3 grey bin; week 4 green bin.
Some councils – such as neighbouring Wakefield – don’t charge for garden bin collections. Kirklees, however, will continue to make an extra charge for that service.
Mr Acornley said he appreciated that some homes wouldn’t have enough room for an additional blue bin and, in “exceptional circumstances”, people would be allowed to put paper and card into their green bin.
The council also understood there could be issues with homes that have communal bins.
On the cost of food waste collection, Mr Acornley said the council was speaking to the Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to “better understand what that financial gap is.”
Mr Acornley added: “At this point, we’ve said we’re not progressing – rolling it out – until we understand the finances better from a Government perspective and from our position as well.
“So it’s still moving in the background but what we’re saying is we’re not going to commit to anything financially until we have a better understanding from Government about what exactly they’re going to fund or not fund as part of this. It is good that DEFRA are listening and they do want to come and talk to us now.”
