RESIDENTS will have black bins collected every three weeks as part of new rubbish and recycling collection arrangements announced last week.

Herefordshire Council cabinet members approved changes to local waste collections at a meeting last Thursday (November 25), after residents said in a consultation that more needed to be done to help increase recycling in the county.

The changes include a new weekly food waste collection service and a fortnightly, seasonal garden waste collection service.

The council says that currently, 40 per cent of the contents of black bins could be recycled, and that the new, enhanced service will provide "much more" capacity for recycling.

The new collection "streams" include the provision of new 23-litre food caddies, with liners also provided by the council, which will be collected weekly.

The council will also provide new wheelie bins for paper and cardboard, which will be collected every three weeks.

Existing green bins for metal tins and cans, as well as most plastics, including pots, tubs, trays and bottles, and glass, will also be collected every three weeks, as well as black bins for anything that cannot be recycled or put into food waste.

The changes will come into effect in late 2023.

Cllr Gemma Davies said: "We have listened to our residents who told us they wanted more opportunities to recycle.

"Our new system provides more capacity to recycle from 2024.

"We know that for people living in flats or for larger families this will not be easy.

"We also will be looking for ways to help people in those circumstances and will say more about that in the future.

"This is just one part of our ambitious plans for helping people to reuse more, recycle more and waste less.

"I am also very pleased to have secured savings on our waste disposal contract and greater protection for when recyclers want to send materials outside of Europe.

"I am delighted that we will be achieving a 95 per cent reduction in waste going to landfill from next April to just one per cent."

The council will work with managing agents, residents associations and people who live in flats to ensure they have a service that reflects their needs and provides maximum opportunities for them to recycle.

As is currently the case, larger families, families using disposable nappies and those with medical needs will still receive additional capacity, which are considered on a case by case basis.

The cabinet also agreed changes to its waste disposal contract, that will see a 95 per cent reduction in waste being sent to landfill to just one per cent from April 2022.

Details of the agreement can be found on the council’s website.