Wheelie bin trial set to start

Harrogate Borough Council say they will be starting a trial scheme to replace black recycling boxes with wheelie bins.

The Appleby estate in Knaresborough has been chosen as the first area to trial the wheelie bins due to the amount and quality of the recycling presented by residents.

The new blue-lidded wheelie bin will replace the black box and will be used for glass bottles and jars, tin cans and foil, food and drink cartons, plastic bottles and tubs.

Blue bags for recycling all paper, card and cardboard will continue to be used. However, these will be replaced with heavy-duty bags for those properties that don’t have them.

Residents in this area will receive a letter this week explaining what they need to do. Collection days will remain the same but anyone who is unsure can check theirs online at: www.harrogate.gov.uk/inmyarea

During delivery of the wheelie bins, the borough council will collect any existing black boxes. These will either be reused for other residents or recycled, depending on their condition.

Councillor Andy Paraskos, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for environment, waste reduction and recycling, said:

For some time we’ve been looking at how we could improve our kerbside scheme as we know residents are increasingly conscious of the environment and have been recycling more, which is fantastic.

But before we roll out wheelie bins across the Harrogate district, we have decided to first carry out a trial with a number of properties to ensure that what we achieve with the current system is replicated.

Our recycling is clean, high-quality and easily accepted at the processing sites so we’d like to say a massive thank you to the residents for always going above and beyond to help us and our crews.

We need to ensure switching to wheelie bins doesn’t change this, as the better our recycling the easier it is sort and process.

In some collection areas, not all residents are as conscientious about what they put in the wheelie bin. Resulting in higher contamination rates and much of the recycling having to be disposed of either through incineration or landfill. At the moment residents can be confident that everything they put out in their box and bag is sent for processing and their efforts are helping achieve our recycling goals.

In some instances, using wheelie bins for recycling can lead to higher contamination rates, so the borough council will be trialling wheelie bins first and will use the data to influence an approach for other areas across the Harrogate district.

Other areas will join the trial in the coming month. And residents who are part of the trial will receive a letter in due course explaining the next steps.