Smaller bins for new Shropshire houses could be considered

In Shropshire Council’s latest Waste Prevention Strategy several ideas have been considered to lower the amount of waste being produced in the county including smaller bins and less frequent collections.

These ideas were listed as “tools to achieve further waste prevention”.

The strategy document noted that the council’s tools were “somewhat limited” and listed a handful of ways that waste could be reduced to hit its target of a 25 per cent reduction in household waste by 2030.

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One of these was to reduce bin sizes by a quarter for new builds.

The document argues that “the standard sized wheelie bin issued to households is 240 Litres, many councils across the UK now issue 180 Litre bins, with these providing less capacity such bins do concentrate household behaviour to further sort out waste streams as efficiently as possible”.

READ MORE: Waste reduction plans could save council £1m a year

It was found that to have this in every home would “be cost prohibitive” to change existing bins, however, “this could be introduced as a policy for new build properties”.

The plan also suggests stricter enforcement of current rules including “closed bin lids and no side waste” which look to “restrict the capacity for households” adding that “the rigour with which these policies are applied does depend upon the collection crew and collection depot area, hence consistent enforcement may yield changed behaviours”.

These would potentially go alongside the controversial plans to charge for the collection of garden waste and the implementation of a booking system to use council run recycling centres.

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The plan would also see the promotion of different environmentally beneficial behaviours such as composting garden waste at home, using reusable items at shops such as bags or life or refillable bottles, cups and jars.

They are also hoping there will be a continued increase in use in the use of facilities such as repair cafes.  

Shropshire Council also looked at “reducing waste capacity by further reducing collection frequency”.

They found this had been a strategy used by councils in Wales but due to rules in England there is currently a “minimum frequency at fortnightly for residual waste”