Council to trial wheelie bins for rubbish collection in parts of Milton Keynes

MK Council is set to approve a new pilot for waste collection in parts of the borough at a meeting later this month.

Councillor Emily Darlington, Cabinet member for the public realm promised last year to explore pilot schemes for waste collection to compare against current clear plastic sacks.

The pilot will involve 5,800 homes for six months in Blue Bridge, New Bradwell, Bancroft Park, Brooklands, Astwood, Chicheley, Moulsoe, North Crawley, Little Crawley, Hardmead, Oakgrove, Monkston, Monkston Park, Newton Leys, Lakes Estate, Grange Farm, Oakhill, Shenley Church End and Medbourne.

These homes were chosen to cover a wide range of properties from Victorian terraces to newer homes, with gardens and outside spaces of various sizes. All properties in the borough are being surveyed by Keep Britain Tidy to check if they are suitable for wheelie bins.

Previously MK Council has ruled out providing wheelie bins as they are too expensive and could mean fortnightly instead of weekly rubbish collections throughout the borough.

.The pilot will help the council develop options for new collection methods. Residents will be consulted before any decision is made and the council will be hearing feedback from people in the pilot and from the teams making the collections.

Monitoring will be in place to see if using wheelie bins leads to cleaner streets. Current arrangements mean that sacks left on the street can burst, or be ripped open by animals. The use of wheelie bins in the pilot may also lead to increased recycling and less fly tipping.

Business waste misuse will be more straight forward to monitor within the pilot area. Reports have been received that commercial waste is being wrongly put out for collection alongside domestic waste.

The pilot is a similar system to MK’s former red and blue collection system from the 1990s.

MK is one of the top recyclers in the UK and was one of the first places in the country to introduce kerbside recycling in 1992. It was the first to build its own in-borough recycling plant. Last year MK Council set ambitious plans to become the first carbon negative city by 2050 with an end goal to become the greenest city.

Councillor Darlington said: “This pilot will give residents what they have been asking for and will help us see what works and what doesn’t. We will understand more about what residents need to make recycling and disposing of their household waste easier.”

“We haven’t consulted on this issue since 2005. It’s important we understand the current picture to make an informed decision before our contracts are due for renewal in 2023.”