MORE than 106,000 smaller black bins will be rolled out to residents across South Gloucestershire from Monday.

The new 140-litre bins will replace the current 240 litre black wheeled bins used for non-recyclable waste, with the complete swap expected to take place over the next three months.

South Gloucestershire Council claim that 52 per cent of household waste that goes into refuse bins could be recycled, and the new bins are one of a number of measure being introduced to reduce this.

Other initiatives being introduced include weekly kerbside recycling collections, along with a simpler sorting system so that residents can easily recycle their waste.

The combined effect is that people don’t have to store as much recyclable material between collections, and the financial cost of disposing the black bin waste is reduced.

Eight vehicles will be used to exchange the bins for two collection routes, with an average of 2,000 bins being exchanged each day.

Wheels will be removed from the old bins and stacked at the roadside in groups of 10 without blocking pavements, driveways or footpaths and will be removed later the same day by another vehicle.

The old bins will be recycled at no additional cost. The average weight of the old 240-litre bin is 13kg, which will mean around 1,378 tonnes of plastic which will be recycled into new bins and other hard plastic containers - enough to fill 69 articulated lorries

New bins may be delivered before the old bin is removed, but all of the old bins will be removed by the end of the day in the area where crews are working.           

Cllr Heather Goddard, South Gloucestershire’s cabinet member for communities and tourism, said: “There’s no doubt that the amount of waste put into the black bins could be reduced by recycling more from home.

“Recycling is the right thing to do for our environment and our economy and I would encourage everyone to recycle even more in 2018.

“People have already risen to the challenge since the weekly kerbside recycling collections began last year. The next step is to reduce the size of people’s waste bins.

“This will reduce the amount of recyclable waste ending up in the black bins and help the council achieve its ambitious recycling target of 60 per cent by 2020.

“There have been a number of other initiatives brought in as part of the new approach, including introducing separate bags for disposable nappy waste to help families with young children manage their non-recyclable waste.

“Waste that cannot be recycled is disposed of either as energy from waste or into landfill and the council has to pay at least £101 to dispose of every tonne of black bin waste in this way, which soon adds up.”

More information is available at www.southglos.gov.uk/wastestrategy.