Bins uncollected after recycling change - councillor

Councillor Celia Hibbert said she had been contacted by residents over the issue

A councillor has demanded an immediate pause to changes to refuse collections in Wolverhampton which she blames for uncollected recycling bins.

In January, the city council announced a change under which recycling would no longer be collected if the bins contained the wrong items.

But Celia Hibbert, an Independent for Penn ward, said more than 23,000 bins had been left uncollected in just three collection rounds.

The council said its campaign reminding residents to "check before you chuck" had seen "contamination" rates fall from 24% in December to 16% in February.

The authority said previously that placing incorrect items in the bins meant materials could not be properly recycled and had to be disposed of separately, costing more money and also losing the environmental benefits.

Tags are being placed on receptacles that contain the invalid items and ask residents to remove anything that should not be there, allowing waste to be picked up at a future date.

'Inundated'

Yet Ms Hibbert said it was not just about wrong items but people being expected to wash out some containers beforehand, along with passers-by potentially throwing away items in bins without residents' knowledge.

In an online petition she said she had been inundated with complaints about the new system and wanted a pause on the change because it was causing a health hazard and an eyesore.

"Due to the huge impact this is having in our city, I am calling on all well-meaning residents to please sign this petition which demands that the cabinet member immediately pauses this rule change and returns to the drawing board, this time with a wider consultation with residents," her petition stated.

A spokesperson for the council said its list of acceptable recyclable material had remained unchanged since 2020.

“Contamination rates have fallen from 24% in December to 16.6% in February and no loads of waste have been rejected by our recycling facility, saving money on additional disposal costs," they said.

“Early in the campaign, up to 14% of recycling bins were tagged as contaminated and not collected, but last week’s average showed this had dropped to just under 5%."

Bin contamination cost taxpayers £185,000 a year which was money that could be better spent on other services, the spokesperson added.