Swindon's recycling roll out: Your guide to your new bins

A new recycling regime comes into effect today (November 27th).

As well as new routes householders are being asked to sort and put out their recycling in a different manner and in specific containers.

The council’s cabinet member for highways and the environment Councillor Chris Watts in in charge of the recycling collections and processing, and he said: ”The better the quality of the recyclate, the more money the council gets for it when we sell it on.

“And good quality material does bring us significant sums. With the metals for example, we watch the commodities market, and we might hold on to it until the price is better.

“With food waste we expect to get £15 to £18 a tonne which we send to an anaerobic digester and we’re expecting to send 8,000 tonnes a year.”

That could net the council between £120,000 and £144,000 per year, and it will also remove many tonnes of waste from landfill, where the council pays a tax of up to £102 per tonne.

The food waste is digested in an air=tight environment where it releases gases used to power electricity turbines and the residue is turned into fertiliser for agriculture.

Here’s what to do with each strand of recycling:

Plastics

Plastic should go into the weighted blue woven bag issued to all households.

Plastic recycling put out in the plastic sacks used until now will not be collected from Monday.

Metal, foil and tins

These should go in the same blue bag as the plastic recycling.

The metal caps and lids to bottles and jars, tinfoil and foil trays, as long as they are clean, and even aerosol cans can go into the bag as well.

Wash and Squash

The council says if householders wash both their plastic and tins and metals and squash empty cand, tubs, and plastic bottles, they’ll get more into the blue weighted bags, it will also allow crews to get further round their routes before having to return to the depot to empty the lorry.

If there is more plastic and metal than will fit, even when washed and squashed, Cllr Watts said it can be left in a “sturdy container, like a plastic or solid cardboard box. But it must be loose, and not in a plastic sack. That’s very important.”

Paper and cardboard

Paper and cardboard should be put into one of the two black or orange plastic recycling crates issued.

Glass

Glass bottles and jars should be washed out and put in the other black or orange crate.

The steel screw tops to jars should go in with metals into the blue weighted bag.

Food waste

Households have been issued with two caddies, a small one ideal for keeping in the kitchen and a larger one, which can be kept outside and holds the waste when put out for collection.

Food can be put out in compostable bags, ordinary plastic bags or even loose – although experience suggests that will mean the need to wash out the caddies on a regular basis.

As well as the new boxes and food waste caddies and weighted bags which have cost the council £600,000 the authority has spent £7m on new recycling lorries replacing its ageing fleet.

It has just brought in a ‘waste wizard’ on its website which will advise residents on what they should do with specific types of waste and recycling.

• recycling