Recycling wheelie bins set to be trialled in Harrogate district

Harrogate Borough Council has announced the wheelie bins will be tested out as replacements for black recycling boxes which are used for tins, plastic and glass, while card is currently disposed of in blue bags.

Residents have long complained that the current containers are not big enough and result in recycling being blown across streets during bad weather.

The council said the trial would run at locations and dates yet to be announced.

In a social media message to residents, the council said: "For some time we've been looking at how we could improve our kerbside scheme as we know you are increasingly conscious of the environment and have been recycling more year on year, which is fantastic.

"But before we roll out wheelie bins across the Harrogate district, we have decided to carry out a trial with a number of properties first."

The council said only two of its 10 recycling wagons can currently accept waste from wheelie bins and that adapting them all "isn't straightforward and will take some time to achieve".

It also said the trial would see if the wheelie bins result in more contaminated waste - a problem seen in some council areas.

Recycling that contains contamination - including the wrong items or food waste - costs more to dispose of and the recycled material produced can be of lower quality.

Currently, only around 1% of recycling in the Harrogate district is contaminated.

The council said: "We need to ensure switching to wheelie bins doesn't change this as the less contaminated it is, the more of it is actually recycled. In other collection areas, some residents aren't as conscientious about what they put in their wheelie bin.

"We'll be trailing the wheelie bins in certain areas to be confirmed with different types of properties, areas of high recycling rates, etc, and will use the data to influence an approach later in the year.

"Wheelie bins will replace black recycling boxes and we will continue to use blue bags for paper and card, albeit these will be replaced with heavy-duty bags for those properties that don't have them

"It is still early days and we'll have lots more information in the coming weeks."

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter