THE district’s much anticipated and long awaited waste and recycling service is due to start next week, allowing all 52,000 households to recycle their food waste for the first time.

Stroud District Council’s new scheme will mean the district’s rubbish will now be collected in new wheelie-bins every two weeks – rather than weekly.

Households have also been provided with kitchen caddies to collect food waste in the home, and outside food waste bins to empty them into for collection.

The current recycling bins and boxes will continue to be collected every two weeks as they are at the moment.

The first collections for the new service start on Tuesday, November 1.

Simon Pickering, chairman of Stroud District Council’s environment committee, said: “Residents have been asking for food waste recycling and it’s something we have wanted to do for some time.

“We expect the new service to significantly boost recycling rates in the district and reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill, something that is both beneficial to the environment and saves tax-payer money in costly landfill charges.”

New collection calendars have been sent to all households over the past few days.

Councillor Pickering added: “The other great benefit of the new service is that the food waste bins lock shut, which, coupled with rubbish in wheelie-bins, should significantly reduce the problem of animals ripping open bin bags and creating a terrible mess on collection day.”

As wheelie-bins or beige refuse sacks will now be used to collect rubbish, the council will no longer be providing households with a weekly black bin bag.

However, residents can still use their own bin liners, but these need to be put inside the new grey bins or beige sacks for collection.

For the kitchen caddy and food waste bins, residents do not need to line them but if they want to they can use plastic bags, compostable liners or newspaper.

All properties should have received their new bins by now. Anyone who hasn’t should contact the council urgently so that they can be delivered in time for their collections.

SDC is reminding residents that they can start filling their food waste bins now in advance of the first collections under the new scheme.

They can also start putting rubbish in their grey wheelie-bins, or, for the small amount of properties that cannot accommodate a bin, into their new beige rubbish bags.

While many have welcomed the new service as a better way to recycle waste – some critics have raised issues about the new size of the wheelie bins, arguing fortnightly collections will lead to rubbish piling up.

For further information see stroud.gov.uk/recycling.

To contact the council about missing bins email recycling@stroud.gov.uk

Additional information:

  • This week you will not receive replacement black bags when your rubbish is collected.
  • You can line your household bin with any bag or liner you wish and place it into your grey-wheelie bin or beige bags for collection.
  • You may wish to put your house number or name on your new bins.
  • Your current green recycling bin and box stay the same, however you cannot put batteries in your green bin anymore, but these can be recycled at supermarkets.
  • If you have been given beige bags for your rubbish instead of a wheelie-bin, you will have received a year’s supply (up to three bags per fortnight – which is more than the previous one bag per week).
  • Fortnightly rubbish collections might sound worrying, but they should be fine, because food waste will be collected separately every week, so the waste left in your bin shouldn’t be smelly.
  • It’s estimated that food waste takes up a third of the space in rubbish bags, so using the new food waste service should significantly reduce the amount of rubbish in your bin.
  • The food waste from the district will be sent to an anaerobic digester where it will be composted and the gases turned into energy to power homes and businesses. The waste product is turned into fertiliser for farmers to use on their fields.