Wheelie good news for Hangleton and Portslade households!

Residents in Hangleton, South Portslade and North Portslade could be the first in the city to receive wheelie bins for their recycling.

Brighton & Hove City Council is considering running a trail wheelie bin recycling collection service for 4,300 homes in the Hangleton and Portslade areas.

Members of the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee are being asked to give the go ahead for the scheme, which could help boost recycling rates in the city.

If approved, the trial could start in November.

Until now, all city residents benefitting from kerbside collections use black boxes to store their paper, card, cans and plastic bottles for recycling. Residents are asked to keep glass in a separate box to maintain the quality of recycling as shards of glass mixed with paper can hamper recycling. Many households need several boxes to store all their recycling.

The contents of the boxes were originally sorted on the roadside by Cityclean workers. However, the recent replacement of recycling collection vehicles combined with the sorting facility at Hollingdean, means that kerbside recycling can now be collected using wheelie bins.

Only glass needs to be collected separately to maintain recycling quality.

Under the trial, residents will be issued with 240 litre wheelie bins (larger than the 140 litre standard issue wheelie bin for refuse collection) for recycling along with a box for glass.  Any properties which are unable to store a wheelie bin on their property can continue to have their recycling collected in boxes. The collection frequency will remain the same.

The bins are expected to increase the amount of recycling collected and will be easier to handle for residents and Cityclean staff

Other advantages include keeping paper and cardboard dry, and avoiding contents been blown away in windy weather.

Many areas of the city, where homes have adequate storage facilities, could benefit from recycling wheelie bins which are easy to use, and will improve the efficiency of the collection service.

Following the trial, which is expected to cost around £135,000, officers will assess the scheme and its effect on recycling rates, and consider feedback from residents before deciding whether to explore extending the scheme to other areas.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee said: “We know there is a strong demand from residents living in suburban areas of the city for recycling wheelie bins. Therefore I am pleased that members of the environment committee have been asked consider this scheme.

“This could be a major step towards our commitment to provide a more ‘tailor made’ recycling service for all our residents.”

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