The march of the blue wheelie bin has arrived in Burghwallis. Essentially replacing the existing green boxes with four times the capacity the blue wheelies will be collected once a fortnight. But not until March this year.
The delay will allow the 136,000 new bins to be delivered around the borough before the new service takes over. We still need to use the green box, however, even when the blue wheelie is in operation.
Any glass being recycled – “The green, green glass of home” – as well as brown and clear bottles and jars etc. still need to go in the existing green boxes . This is because the new bins will be emptied mechanically by tipping them up and over into a refuse lorry. Glass has a habit of smashing especially when it hits ‘owt solid – like another bottle or the sides of the bin lorry. As all the recycling will be sorted in a central depot the last thing they need is some broken glass wandering about.
The council have provided further information and a bunch of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) on the DMBC website. Have a look here.
You may wonder why some plastic is not recycled; yoghurt pots and plastic food trays for example (see the guide) this is because these containers use “low grade” plastic which can’t be easily recycled at the moment. Instead this plastic is incinerated to provide useful heat and electrical energy for the rest of the recycling programme.