East Suffolk Council has agreed a historic, new approach to recycling collection, and with it, a commitment to greatly improve environmental outcomes for the district.
At a meeting of Full Council on 25 September, members agreed to radically increase the range and volume of products which can be presented for household recycling, in line with the requirements of Government legislation through the Environment Act 2021.
This will see all households supplied with an additional wheelie bin or other container to separate paper and card from plastics, metal, cartons (including Tetra Pak) and glass bottles or jars.
A weekly food waste collection service was agreed earlier this year, and the new rounds will be implemented in 2026.
Additionally, this extra collection service allows the Council to adopt a three-weekly waste collection service, rather than the current fortnightly arrangement, without a reduction in the overall combined capacity of household bins.
Cllr Sally Noble, East Suffolk Council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “We have reached a point where we must now grasp a clear opportunity to reset our approach to waste collection, and with it, greatly improve environmental outcomes for our residents.
“National targets require us to divert 60% of waste to recycling by 2030 and 65% by 2035. However, recycling performance has plateaued in recent years, with East Suffolk currently diverting only 39%. This places us 203rd out of 343 collection authorities in England and Wales.
“The current co-mingled method of collecting recycling in one bin means that a large amount of the paper and card we collect is contaminated by the other items and the ‘twin stream’ method, with an additional recycling bin, will transform the quality of materials for re-use, with huge environmental benefits.
“This also means that much less residual waste will need to be collected. We have the potential to divert over 58% of waste from rubbish bins, and to encourage improved recycling habits, a revised waste collection service presents an incredible and unmissable opportunity to take a big step forward.
“Three-weekly waste collections would save an extra 6,500 tonnes of carbon emissions a year compared to the current two-weekly model and without actually decreasing the overall, combined bin capacity that each household receives.”
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