Tariq Mahmood, Keep Blackburn Tidy, Sally Booth, BwD Education Recycling Officer, Janet Pearce Keep Darwen Tidy with BwDs Maggie Holt
Published Monday 1 June 2020 at 12:49
New blue bins to help make recycling easier in Blackburn with Darwen will start being delivered to residents from next week.
The new bins, and blue bags for those who need them, will be used for clean cardboard and paper.
Residents’ burgundy bins, for general waste, will still be collected in exactly the same way, once every 2 weeks – with the grey and blue bins for recyclables then being collected alternately every fortnight.
Councillor Jim Smith, the Council’s Executive Member for Environment, said:
We have some of the lowest recycling rates in the country and we desperately want to change that and need to be doing more with the help of our residents and fantastic band of Keep it Tidy volunteers.
We’ve spoken to our residents and they’ve told us recycling can often be confusing – especially knowing what should go in each bin – this is the same right across the country.
The blue bin will make it simpler and will also ensure that what we are recycling isn’t damaged by all being mixed together.
We’re investing £1.5m in the new bins, bags and collections, and that will be recouped in the first two years.
Leaflets are set to be delivered to homes across the borough over the coming days containing information about the new blue bin and a new guide to ‘what goes where.’
A new website has also be launched – recyclebwd.org with a fun new drag and drop game for residents to be able to test their knowledge.
Councillor Smith added:
Our recycling rate is only around 30% currently.
We know that a majority of our residents really are trying their best, but some weeks we can have up to 4,000 bins contaminated.
This means that non-recyclables have bene put in the grey bin and if this happens, the whole wagon load may be sent to landfill – undoing a lot of people’s hard work.
The new bin is part of our push to make it easier for people to recycle and we hope it will really help.
Our big goal is to be recycling 50% of our waste in the borough by 2025.
Around 60,000 bins and bags will be delivered from the beginning of June.
Once every house has received one, a new calendar for collection dates will be sent out and the blue bins will start to be emptied.
Councillor Smith said:
The crews will be working hard to get the new bags and bins out as quickly as we can,” Councillor Smith said.
We appreciate some people may be struggling for space for an extra bin.
Once they have all been delivered, if residents don’t have enough space, they can contact us and we may be able to swap it for a bag.
We’re created a section of frequently asked questions on the new website and these will be helpful for those who want to know more.
The crews will be wearing appropriate PPE when the bins are delivered, but as with all bins, residents are asked to wipe the handles with an antibacterial spray or wipe.
For more information, visit: recyclebwd.org