A new bi-weekly collection of paper and card refuse is set to be trialled in South Holland for the first time.
From September residents in selected areas will need to put paper and card into a blue sack which will be collected once every two weeks.
Collections will alternate with the current green recycling bags which will be for all other recycling such plastic, metal and glass.
Regular waste collection is not affected and will continue to be collected every week.
South Holland will join areas in Boston Borough Council and North Kesteven District Council in taking part in the trial as part of its membership of its Lincolnshire Waste Partnership which aims to improve the quality and commercial value of recycling in the county.
A report to a meeting of the partnership sitting today (Thursday) states that 4,531 properties are set to take part in the trial which will launch in September and continue to the end of March.
South Holland District Council’s portfolio holder for place, Coun Roger Gambba-Jones, says fewer properties may be involved, but the trial will ‘probably’ run for a longer period to ensure enough data is collected from the trial.
“The plan for the trial is that the collection of dry recycling will be alternated just in two specific locations trying to examine the effect it has on a mixture of both urban and rural areas,” he said. “We’re looking to carry out the trial at areas that currently have their recycling collected on Mondays.
“Castle ward in Spalding and also Pinchbeck and Surfleet which all have collections on Mondays are possibilities for the trial, but it’s not been decided yet.
“We’ll be looking at getting an understanding of how people work the system in the selected areas.”
The two other councils involved in the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership trial will try different collection methods in the hope of eventually rolling out a countywide initiative to “improve the contamination in all streams” of recycling and change “the attitude and behaviour of customers” the report to the partnership states.
It continues that residents taking part in the trial in the Boston and North Kesteven areas would receive a separate wheelie bin which would be collected “once every four weeks, alternating fortnightly” with those areas’ existing recycling collections.
In the South Holland trial, following collection the district council will empty the blue plastic bags at what the district council call a “transfer station” before taking the paper to be recycled at a plant in King’s Lynn.
The report to the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership states that all properties chosen will be required to participate through a Section 46 notice of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
This will give the authority “notice to reject bags” that contain anything other than paper and card.
Coun Gambba-Jones said: “Everybody knows recycling is the right way to go and do things and we have to work out a way that people are comfortable with, works for all residents and makes a return for the council tax payers of Lincolnshire.
“I believe the most recent figure is that the council would receive £450 a tonne for recyclable paper so it’s important to everyone across Lincolnshire this could help to balance the books for the county council (whose job it is to dispose of the waste).
“The partnership is looking to see what is the most effective and we’ll also look at what’s been done nationally to see what works.”
