Wheelie Bin News Roundup 30th July

Wheelie Bin News Roundup 30^th July

Bin bags could be banned from kerbside collections and wheelie bins could be introduced across Bridgend in a bid to make the county plastic-free.

There are no definite plans in place, but the council is considering the implications of such a move as they want to move away from single-use plastics. The proposed changes would cost around £1 million.

Other suggestions to reduce plastic use have been made including;

Asking businesses to stop using polystyrene packaging and replacing it with cardboard or 100% recycled plastic containers

Encouraging all bars and restaurants to sign up to the re-fill app and offer free refills of water

A report that is set to be presented to the council says that 2,109 tonnes of plastic are recycled from kerbside collections in Bridgend every year and 1,197 tonnes of plastic including children's toys and garden furniture, are taken to tips for recycling.

Changes to bin collections that were introduced in Bridgend last year saw homes with fewer than five occupants limited to two bags of non-recyclable rubbish per fortnight. The changes caused anger and controversy and there were numerous complaints about pests, odour and missed collections.

The council answered the complaints by saying that the changes had led to an increase in recycling from 58% in 2016-17 to 68.5% in 2017-18.

Bridgend is one of several local authorities who are considering becoming plastic-free after concerns raised following the screening of the Blue Planet II documentary which showed the impact of plastic pollution on our oceans.

Newport council is considering asking businesses across the city to use paper bags and stop using plastic knives and forks, and last month, Chepstow, joined Aberporth, New Quay and Aberystwyth, in becoming designated plastic-free communities.

More than 950 wheelie bins were reported stolen in Sunderland last year, councillors were told. This is 800 more than in the previous year. A report presented to the council stated that the previous council’s policy to charge people for replacement bins (unless they were reported to police) had played a big part in the increase, because people were reporting their bin as stolen just to get a free replacement. Northumbria Police confirmed that almost 3% of crimes in Sunderland were bin thefts.

The council currently charges £25 to replace any bin that is stolen, lost or damaged. The only circumstance in which a free replacement would be offered is if the bin had been damaged by a council worker during collection.

A Welsh student eats for free by living off produce that supermarkets have thrown out. The student, who lives in Bangor, has salvaged everything from hundreds of onions to two wheelie bins full of ice cream!

There is even a ‘bin-diving’ WhatsApp group that’s been set up to share food and make sure that none of it goes to waste.

The student said she first began bin-diving when she started university because money was tight. Now she is doing her Master’s Degree and she has continued, because she only works part-time and has a limited budget. She goes with her housemates to search for food that has been thrown away, and between them, they can often collect enough to keep them going for a week. Among the things she has found in the bins were smoothies, onions, ice cream and meat that had another month of shelf life.

But it’s not only her and her friends that benefit, she often passes food onto cafes and charities so that more people can enjoy perfectly good food that has been thrown away.