Grantham households could be getting an extra bin

The introduction of new purple-lidded wheelie bins is being considered by SKDC next week.

This follows a successful roll-out of the initiative across four other areas of Lincolnshire, which has resulted in significant improvements to the quality of recycling.

Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste, Councillor Rhys Baker, said: “Because some people put the wrong materials in their recycling bin, it can mean that paper and card contaminated with liquids or food has to be disposed of rather than recycled.

“If this scheme goes ahead as planned, it will be a big change for residents across the district, so we will be sharing information about the changes, a recycling guide showing what goes in which bin – plus a guide for the new purple-lidded bin for clean and dry paper and card.

“It will mean paper and card can be kept clean, dry and separate from other recycling so it can be sent to a dedicated UK processor.

“The introduction of the purple-lidded bin in other areas of Lincolnshire has proved that collecting paper and cardboard separately is the most efficient and effective method of collecting good quality material for recycling, which we hope residents will support.”

More than 12.5m tonnes of paper and card are used in the UK each year, accounting for 20% of all household waste. The average family throws away around six trees worth of paper every year so if every person recycled just 10% more paper it would save approximately 5 million trees each year.

A report to SKDC’s Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (11th), which will also be presented to Cabinet the same day, said contamination rates in all of the materials collected for recycling had dropped from around 30% to 15% where the scheme has rolled already in other parts of Lincolnshire.

It added: “During the initial trials in other district areas feedback was sought, with 82% of responses stating that they would be happy to continue with the separate collection of paper and card beyond the trial.”

This scheme would replace one of the existing fortnightly recycling collections so there would be no increase in mileage – and associated carbon emissions – of the Council fleet. Costs would be met by Lincolnshire County Council, which is responsible for disposing of waste across the county.

It is proposed that the roll-out of separate paper and card collections would begin in the autumn with publicity and delivery of bins. The first collection would be February 2024.

Councillor Daniel McNally, Lincolnshire County Council’s Executive Member for Waste, said: “Across Lincolnshire we have been looking at ways to try and improve the quality of all the recycling we collect and support our residents to put the right thing in the right bin.

“This way as much as possible of the waste we produce is recycled.”