Have your say on how the council delivers its new collections

Have your say on how the council delivers its new weekly food recycling collections

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Residents are being asked to have their say on how a new bin collection service can be introduced with the least amount of disruption to households. Consultation opens on Friday 3 July.

Rochdale Borough Council’s cabinet has approved a proposal to roll out the new collections in a bid to increase recycling rates.

The new service will roll out in October 2015 and forms part of the council’s invest to save programme; providing savings of up to £1 million per year to help ease the saving requirements of other essential public services.

It costs £10 every time the council collects a general waste bin, which works out at £306.62 per tonne in disposal charges. If the council does not increase recycling and reduce the amount of general waste it collects, the total cost of waste disposal could increase by as much as £2 million by 2016/17.

The new service will introduce collections to households in the borough in the following way:  

• Collect general waste bins (dark green bin) together with food and garden bins/caddies in week one.
• Collect mixed recycling bins (light green bin with a blue lid) together with food and garden bins/caddies in week two.
• Collect paper and card recycling bins (blue bin) together with food and garden bins/caddies in week three.

All households will be provided with free compostable liners to help residents recycle more food waste.

Councillor Jacqui Beswick, Cabinet Member for Environment said: “Residents should be reassured that the introduction of new weekly collections for food waste and garden waste will eliminate the potential for bad smells and flies, particularly during the summer months.

"A similar collection service has been operating in the neighbouring borough of Bury since October 2014 and fly-tipping tonnages have not increased over this same period. By keeping the caddy lid securely closed, smells will not escape. Changing compostable liners regularly will help and the council will provide these free of charge.

“The council needs to make big savings over the next two years which means we need to do things differently. The changes will see recycling rates increase rapidly and reduce the cost of disposal – helping to save council tax payers money to make better use of funds which could be spent on other essential public services.

"I urge residents to read the details of the service change and send us their views on how we can make delivering this new service a smooth transition for everyone.”

You can see full details of the new service and take part in the consultation by visiting www.rochdale.gov.uk/yourviews or email your comments to recycling@rochdale.gov.uk

The closing date for this public consultation is 1 August at 5pm. Responses and suggestions will be considered before decisions are made on how to deliver the new waste service.