Glass bins the fourth for every household
THOUSANDS of households across Sefton will soon be given a blue recycling bin, meaning they will be asked to separate their waste in up to four different receptacles.
It is part of a massive shake-up of recycling under the new Environment Act, with food recycling due to be reintroduced soon.
The council’s Overview and Scrutiny committee has voted to buy and distribute up to 100,000 blue bins.
The new scheme will see glass put into the blue bin, other recyclable items placed in a brown wheelie bin, general household waste in a third bin and garden waste in a fourth.
Sefton Council says the cost of this – and the updating of the cleansing vehicle fleet – will be offset by £400,000 of recycling income generated annually over 10 years from the Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority.
It is understood the money will be saved as a result of Sefton Council removing glass from its general recycling collections.
In its Environment Bill, which could become law in late 2020, the Government is asking for one ‘core’ item of recycling to be collected separately.
Having reviewed the core items, due to weight of the product, the ease with which it can be separated and the potential for generating income, Sefton proposed removing glass from the current brown bin collection.
Collecting glass separately, the council says, produces much higher quality material which can be used for closed loop recycling, making it infinitely recyclable into new glass jars and bottles.
The quality of the other materials collected in brown bins will also be much higher delivering better quality material for recycling, allowing it to be reprocessed in local facilities.
Local Lib Dems argued the scheme would fail unless it had widespread public support and could then fail to meet its environmental and financial targets.
Cllr John Pugh, leader of Southport Liberal Democrats, said: “There are genuine concerns amongst the public about the need for a fourth Sefton bin and the numbers of properties prepared to accommodate them, so it is just good sense to consult rather than impose.”
“The council has chosen a path that they hope will leave them in profit but there are so many untested assumptions in their calculations.”
However, Peter Moore, Sefton’s head of highways and public protection, says the change to glass recycling will “make a positive contribution” to the borough.
Mr Moore said: “This change to collecting glass recycling items will make a positive contribution to Sefton’s Climate Change Strategy as well as to the region’s environmental impact.
“I realise it will mean we are asking residents to separate out their glass items from other recycling but residents across the borough have been supportive of recycling and our climate change agenda, particularly as it as a way of us keeping down costs too.”
The new bins will be procured through a competitive process for delivery in February and March 2021. Glass recycling collections will start soon after.