Council experts explain exactly why we need four different wheelie bins per household in Milton Keynes

Council experts have explained why households in Milton Keynes need to have four wheelie bins apiece in the new scheme to start this September.

The move will increase the city’s recycling rate by more than 8%, from the current 52% to over 60%.

The vast majority of households will use a new black wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste and two new bins for recyclables - one with a red lid for paper and card and one with a blue lid for plastic, metal and glass. All these will be large180 litre bins and they will be additional to the current green wheelie for food and garden waste.

Some residents without space or access for bins will continue to use black sacks and will separate their recyclables into new red and blue sacks.

Separating card and paper from other recycling at home will help to increase the amount the city recycles “enormously” as unlike now, tonnes of recycling won’t go to waste because paper is wet or has been contaminated by food products, says Cllr Lauren Townsend, the Cabinet member for Waste and Recycling.

The use of bins also means the council can scale back on using millions of plastic sacks, she said.

A council spokesman said: "Separating recyclables is a proven way to increase how much residents recycle, as well as the quality of what’s recycled, which is good for the environment. Just under half of local authorities in our region use four or more bins to separate their recycling and waste. Households in the world’s top recycling nation, Germany, use six bins.”

The council is striving to have Britain’s greenest weekly waste and recycling collections to help battle climate change.

Three decades MK was on the eco map as the first place in the UK to introduce kerbside recycling.

The original idea for door-to-door collections in Milton Keynes came from Waste Chief Engineer Keith Ely, who in the late 1980s saw a recycling scheme while on holiday in Orlando with his family.

A pilot collection scheme launched in 1990 to homes in Great Linford Manor - with the help of comedian Bill Oddie and pupils from St. Monica’s School. 

By the end of 1992, a door-to-door scheme covered the whole of the borough and plans were drawn up for the UK’s first Materials Recycling Factory, which opened in Old Wolverton the following year.

Fast forward to today, and the city council is about to the deliver wheelie bins to 104,000 homes ahead of the new “cleaner and greener” waste and recycling collection.

From day one, Serco workers and vehicles will be a thing of the past. They will be replaced by new contractors SUEZ recycling and recovery, whose new state of the art 65-vehicle waste collection fleet will produce lower carbon emissions.

They even have be fully electric bin lifts, which cut fuel consumption and emissions.

The vehicles are among most technically advanced trucks on the road. Four will be fully electric and the fleet will eventually become almost entirely electric.

Cllr Lauren Townsend said: “Everyone can help Milton Keynes become the greenest and I’d like to thank local residents for playing their part.”