Ards Borough Council is stickin’ it to you – your bins, in fact – over the next two weeks, as part of the on-going campaign to keep local people informed about new bin collections.
Stickers have begun appearing on grey bins across the Ards to remind residents that, from Monday 2nd June, Ards is switching to an ‘alternate weekly collection’ system, meaning that one week grey bins will be collected and the next week blue bins will be collected.
Over the next two weeks, all grey bins in Ards will have the ‘Re:fresh – A Fresh Approach to Bin Collections’ stickers attached to their bins and every household will also receive a leaflet, providing details of the new arrangements, the reasons for its introduction and a freephone helpline number to call in case of queries or questions.
The move to an ‘alternate weekly collection’ system has been prompted by the need to raise the Ards’ recycling rate from 26% to 40% and avoid potential fines of up to £1Million in 2009/10 for failing to meet European targets for diverting waste from landfill sites.
“This is one of the most significant service changes in recent years and it’s vital that everyone not only knows that it is happening, but also understands why and has the opportunity to request a blue recycling bin in advance of the start date,” said Councillor Jonathan Bell, Chairman of the Council’s Council Services Committee. “We have already received in excess of 1,000 requests for blue bins since we first began publicising the change, which is encouraging. However, we estimate that there are a further 5,000 households without recycling bins and we hope that the stickers and information leaflets will highlight the need for these residents to begin participating in kerbside recycling”.
The new arrangements will mean:
Grey and blue bins will be collected on alternate weeks. In other words if your normal ‘bin day’ is a Monday, one week your grey bin will be emptied and the next week your blue bin will be emptied and so on.
Collection days for brown bins will change for most people but brown bins will continue to be emptied once a fortnight.
New grey/blue bin collection calendars will be issued to all homes in May, followed by new timetables for the collection of brown bins. The helpline number is 0808 168 2400.
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