NEW GREEN WHEELIE BINS THROUGHOUT LAMBETH

With money saving and an increase in recycling rates in mind, from mid-January 2017 Lambeth Council will be delivering green recycling wheelie bins throughout the borough over a period of 6 weeks.

You should receive your green recycling wheelie bin by 3 March 2017, if not contact the call centre on 020 7926 9393.

The same recyclable materials as before will be collected from your green recycling wheelie bin. Please ensure that bottles, cartons and tins are rinsed before placing them in the bin.

· All paper – including magazines, newspapers, telephone directories

· newspapers, telephone directories, envelopes and junk mail

· Clean food and drink cartons – Tetrapak type containers

· All cardboard – including boxes, toilet and kitchen roll tubes, greetings cards and eggs boxes

 · Plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays

· Glass bottles and jars

· Tins and drinks cans

If you want to check further information on what can and can’t be recycled, please check www.lambeth.gov.uk/recycling

No food or green waste should be placed in the green recycling wheelie bin

Lambeth are changing the way rubbish is collected to provide:-

● Easier recycling. Your green recycling wheelie bins will make recycling much easier for you. You won’t have to store recycled waste in your house until collection day, you no longer have to worry about sacks tearing or being too heavy, you don’t have to wait for clear recycling sacks to be delivered in order to dispose of your recycled waste.

● Clean streets. The green recycling wheelie bins will keep your recycling tidy. Clear recycling sacks were able to be ripped open by foxes or other animals; with a bin there is less chance of mess.

● Capacity. The standard sized 240-litre green recycling wheelie bin that most residents will receive can hold the equivalent of five clear recycling sacks.

● Saving. Supplying the clear recycling sacks to all residents in the borough costs around £600,000 a year to supply and deliver. The green recycling wheelie bins will replace the need to reorder and supply clear recycling sacks to each property and will last a long time. This makes them a more economical and environmentally sustainable approach than single-use clear recycling sacks

If your bins are not collected, or if there’s a mess on the street please report problems such as 

fly- tips, missed collections or street cleaning by calling 020 7926 9000 or 

email at streetcarecallcentre@lambeth.gov.uk

Only people who have been identified as continuing to use the clear recycling sacks service will be able to order them online or from the call centre from March 2017. A roll of sacks will be delivered three times a year to these properties. We will no longer be providing bags at libraries from March and once you receive your green bin you will not receive the regular deliveries.

Q & A’s

Q: Will my collection day change?

Approximately 80% of residents will experience a waste collection day change, although there will be no change to the frequency of your collections which will remain weekly. We will notify you by letter nearer the time of the changes and when these changes will take effect. Until this time there will be no change, refuse and recycling collections will continue to be collected on your usual day on a weekly basis.

Q: Can I put my house number on my green recycling wheelie bin?

Yes. We encourage you to put your house number on all of your bins, this can help you to locate your bin should it go missing and help stop it from being stolen. Please use stickers or a stencil if you can. Alternatively, white paint will stand out well.

Q: Why is my green recycling wheelie bin bigger than my black refuse wheelie bin?

We want you to be able to recycle as much as possible, diverting as much waste as you can from your black refuse wheelie bin. We have therefore deliberately made the standard green recycling wheelie bin offered, larger than your black refuse wheelie bin. The majority of items used in the home are recyclable (paper, glass, tins, plastic, cartons) and so it makes more sense to have more space for these items.

Q: I don’t want a green recycling wheelie bin as I don’t recycle/Why is recycling important?

In Lambeth the vast majority of residents regularly use our recycling service, this is because they know that if you throw something away, it is no longer useful, in Lambeth it will end up being incinerated. However if you recycle something, it can be recovered and become material for a new product. The benefits to our environment are clear, however there is also a sound financial argument to recycling, it cost the council almost six times as much to treat a tonne of general rubbish than recycling. We need to increase the amount of rubbish we recycle as it’s more sustainable than disposing of waste by burning. 70% of your household waste is recyclable so the majority of your waste should go into your new green bin. The majority of residents use the recycling service and we need all residents to recycle as much off their waste as possible and having the new green recycling wheelie bin makes recycling easy. 5 Recycling also saves us money. The government has cut the council’s money by 56%. Most of our money goes on our most vulnerable residents through things like Adult Social Care and Children’s Services and they remain our priority. Dealing with a tonne of recycling is more than £100 cheaper for us than dealing with a tonne of normal waste! This frees up money we can use to protect other services. You can read more about the #ToughChoices we are having to make at www.lambeth.gov.uk/ToughChoices.

Q: I have an assisted collection; will my bin still be collected?

Yes, if you currently have an assisted collection for your other refuse and food bins this will also apply to your green recycling wheelie bin.

 Q: Do I have to put my recycling into the clear recycling sacks before I put them into the green wheelie bin?

No. Please place your recycling loose directly into the green wheelie bin. Clear recycling sacks are no longer needed to bag up your recycling. We also cannot accept black bags or any other type of plastic bag. You can return any unused bags to Lambeth Libraries.

Q: When can I start using my green recycling wheelie bin?

You can start using your green recycling wheelie bin as soon as you receive it. If you have already got recycling bagged up in clear recycling sacks ready for your next collection please empty these out into the your new bin. You do not need to use clear recycling sacks in the green recycling wheelie bin, please place items loose into the bin. Please do not place any black bags or food in the green recycling wheelie bins.

Q: The clear recycling sacks were really useful for storing recycling inside between collections.

You can use a reusable bag or box to store your recycling in and then empty the contents into your green recycling wheelie bin. Providing and delivering clear recycling sacks costs the council around £600,000 each year; considerable savings are being made by moving to wheeled bins and it’s also much more sustainable to take these additional single use clear sacks out of the system.

Q: What size is my green recycling wheelie bin?

The standard provision green recycling wheelie bin will be 240-litres per household (your black refuse bin is 140- litres). This size is enough to hold all of your recycling over a week and is in line with what other London Boroughs provide. Some residents living in houses of mixed occupancy will be allocated 240-litre or 360-litre green recycling wheelie bins to share to reduce the amount of containers to store while ensuring adequate capacity to recycle. Shared bins will be indicated by a white sticker. Where space is tight, some residents have been identified to receive a 140-litre green recycling wheelie bin to make storing the bin on your property easier.