Seventy-six per cent of MK residents have said they want to switch from bags to wheelie bins for waste and recycling collections in a borough wide consultation.
The Council’s current contract for waste collection is set to end in 2023. Ahead of the switch to wheelie bins, the council will be working with residents to develop solutions where wheelie bins cannot be stored.
As well as holding the consultation, which ended in January and received almost 5,000 responses the Council worked with residents in 3,000 homes around MK on a five-month waste collection pilot.
Wheeled bins and boxes were trialled in a wide range of home and garden types to learn what works from a practical perspective. Residents participating in the trial were also asked for their feedback. The decision also conforms that those residents on the trial will be able to keep and use the bins during this transition period.
The findings from the pilot and the consultation will inform a decision to be made on 23 March on the way forward for MK’s waste and recycling collections.
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Cabinet Member for the Public Realm, Cllr Emily Darlington said: “The pilot has given us a thorough look into the impact of wheeled bins, not just whether people like one method more than another but also whether it improves how we recycle.
"Our next step is to work with residents where wheelie bins won’t work ahead of rolling out the bins to the whole city with the next contract after 2023. Our goal is to make MK cleaner, greener and safer for all residents.”
MK has one of the high recycling rates in the UK. It was one of the first places to introduce kerbside recycling collections and the first to build its own local recycling plant. MK is one of the few places to have very little black sack waste go into landfill; instead it goes through a thermal treatment process to create energy for more than 11,000 homes each year.
MK Council is committed to MK becoming one of the greenest places to live. Increasing and improving the quality of the recycling collected can contribute to that goal. Other ambitions for waste collection are:
Increasing recycling levels.
Improving the quality of recycling by separating materials.
Cleaner streets with reduced spillage.
Reducing injuries to residents, staff and animals.
Reducing our carbon footprint during waste collection.
