A new bin could cost you £20 under new council consultation

Local residents could have to pay for new waste and recycling bins under a new council consultation.

The council is considering introducing a charge of £20 per bin for all new or replacement waste and recycling bins.

In 2018/19, 15,785 requests for wheeled bins were made at an annual cost to the council for purchasing replacement bins of £284,000 (approximately £18 per bin).

The council says that free wheeled bins are “being abused” by a number of residents who request a bin and then fill it with waste and abandon the bin for collection.

It is hoped that the charge would help address this problem.

Rochdale is the only Greater Manchester local authority which currently does not charge for new or replacement waste and recycling bins.

However, developers will still be expected to pay for bins at new properties. There will be a number of exemptions from the charges and the consultation is seeking your views on the charges and possible exemptions.

The consultation is also seeking views on charging landlords to empty contaminated recycling bins left by tenants.

Mark Widdup, Director of Neighbourhoods, said: "The council spends around £285,000 a year providing free wheeled bins and we are currently the only council in Greater Manchester that does not charge for new or replacement refuse bins.

"The proposal is for consultation only at this stage as we are keen to receive comments back from residents.

"This proposal is not set out to penalise residents who have a genuine need for a free replacement bin, for example when one has been stolen or vandalised to the extent where it is unusable. Although we recognise there are certain situations where a replacement request is not the fault of the resident we do see a large number of requests for bins that are unfortunately abused by residents who fill them with waste and dump them in the street. That creates unnecessary costs that at the moment have to be picked up by everybody else.

"We would very much welcome comments from residents at the consultation stage."

The consultation closes on Sunday 2 February.

Have your say here:

• http://consultations.rochdale.gov.uk/council-wide/charging-for-waste-and-recycling-bins/