Residents of East Staffordshire will soon receive a new, larger blue bag to recycle both paper and cardboard through the Council’s kerbside collection.
The larger, reusable, lidded blue bag will replace the old bag (which was for paper only) and is part of a wider change to the kerbside collection provided by East Staffordshire Borough Council. Glass, cans and plastics will be still be collected in the blue wheelie bins, but cardboard and paper should be placed in the blue bag. As part of the changes, waxed cartons including Tetra Pak (such as soup, orange juice and milk cartons) and plastic carrier bags will no longer be accepted.
The Council's previous contract for the processing of dry mixed recycling expired in March 2022 and the Council has worked in partnership with five other Staffordshire district councils on the procurement of a new contract and evaluated the options on both price and quality. In recent years, the recycling market has changed and recycling companies in the UK and abroad are demanding higher quality materials. Changes to the service are necessary to enable the Council to improve the quality of recycling, reduce processing costs and secure a contract offering best value for money.
Councillor Raymond Faulkner, Deputy Leader (Environment and Housing) said:
“We are committed to providing a high quality and simple bin collection service for our residents. We recognise there is an appetite amongst residents to recycle as much as possible, but we are limited by the recycling market. Keeping paper and cardboard separate from other materials has been shown to improve quality which ultimately means more waste can be recycled rather than being incinerated.
“Our residents are already familiar with the system of separating paper using the blue bag service so we hope they will easily adapt to these alterations.”
Across Staffordshire, both Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and Stafford Borough Council successfully operate this type of service. Stafford Borough Council has seen their recycling contamination rates reduce as a result, meaning fewer loads of recycling are rejected. A number of other local authorities in Staffordshire are also making these changes.
Waxed cartons (including Tetra Pak) are very difficult to recycle as they are made from a mixture of material (such as plastic, card and foil) and have to be separated from each other through a specialist process. Some supermarkets are subsequently already moving away from this type of packaging. Plastic carrier bags can be recycled at a number of local supermarkets, or ideally reused.
Residents will receive their new blue bag during the next month and it will be left with their blue wheelie bin after it has been emptied. The blue bags can be used straightaway. Residents are asked to write their address on the panel provided and place the blue bag out for collection alongside the blue wheelie bin on their normal recycling collection day.
A short video and a list of Frequently Asked Questions about these changes may be found on the Council’s website