Portsmouth councillors agree new bin rules to reduce waste

RESIDENTS across Portsmouth will have to ditch wasteful habits to comply with new bin limitations.
Wheelie bins overflowing with rubbishWheelie bins overflowing with rubbish
Wheelie bins overflowing with rubbish

Portsmouth City Council will cap waste collection from each household at around 140 litres, with some homes receiving new wheelie bins, in a bid to reduce waste.

Other residents without space for wheelie bins will be limited to the equivalent of three bin bags a week.

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Everything you need to know about Portsmouth's new bin rules
Wheelie bins overflowing with rubbishWheelie bins overflowing with rubbish
Wheelie bins overflowing with rubbish

Any extra waste will no longer be collected.

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The change was approved at last night’s environment and community safety meeting following results of trials across the city that saw up to a 20 per cent reduction in household waste.

Portsmouth has one of the lowest recycling rates in the country and is currently 340th out of 350 local authorities with a recycling rate of just 24.7 per cent in 2015/16.

Colette Hill, from Portsmouth City Council, said: ‘These figures demonstrate that residents can reduce the amount of waste they put out.

‘We will make efforts to ensure we still carry out weekly collections and on the same days as before.’

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The council’s environment boss, Cllr Dave Ashmore, was positive the scheme would benefit the city.

Residents have made it clear that they do not want to lose their weekly waste collections and we want to find ways to reduce costs to make sure this doesn’t happen,’ he said.

‘As a city we aren’t recycling enough, and while we acknowledge that’s partly down to the limited amount of things we can put in our green bins, it does mean we are producing more waste which costs a fortune to dispose of.

‘Our aim is to encourage residents to recycle everything they can, which will save money, help the environment and help keep the weekly rubbish collections.’

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It was agreed that households that require more bin space, such as those with large families, will be able to apply to the council.

One trialled scheme that will not be permanent was the use of reusable bin bags for which 59 per cent of residents felt they made the collection service worse, compared to only 10 per cent who said it improved it.

Ms Hill added: ‘There were some problems with the reusable bags such as them being blown about in the wind when they were empty.’

A provisional date has been set for December. However, the schedule for the roll-out will be online as soon as it is finalised.

All residents will receive an information pack at the time of implementation.

Waste collections will still be weekly and recycling collections will continue to be fortnightly.