The future of recycling paper and card in South Holland remains unclear as other councils in the county look to roll-out purple-lidded wheelie bins.
The consistent refusal of South Holland District Council to utilise wheelie bins means it cannot be part of the scheme which Lincolnshire County Council hopes to see implemented by 2025, unless there’s a major change.
Proposed legal changes would further complicate the situation for South Holland, as any binding direction from the government would have to be followed.
Separate paper and card collection wheelie bins are already used in some districts, and could be rolled-out over the rest of Lincolnshire in the next two years.
The county council’s Environment and Economy Committee was given an update last Tuesday.
Rachel Stamp, the council’s waste partnership and project manager, said: “It is anticipated that potentially by the end of 2024, early 2025, hopefully we will be able to do that.
“There are all sorts of local issues that waste collection authorities have got to manage in terms of their own priorities and workload but in an ideal world we would have everybody rolled in by 2025, though I can’t guarantee that.”
Four of the county’s seven districts have implemented separate dry paper and cardboard bins, leading to a total of 13,909 tonnes of separate fibre collected up to February.
In South Holland, a purple bag scheme has been implemented in some areas for paper and cardboard collection.
The situation is ‘complicated’ as wheelie bins would need different lorries to collect the recycling – and cost could be an issue.
“We don’t want to spend a lot of money doing one thing and then DEFRA turns round and says something else,” said Roger Gambba-Jones – the council’s portfolio holder for environmental services.
He said it wasn’t a case of ‘never’, but stressed there were wider issues to be addressed before anything was decided.
A number of changes to garden and food waste collection are being held-up by delays in the Environment Act.
Authorities are hoping it will outline ‘burden’ funding for any directions to help pay for any additional or new equipment.
