Officers from East Cambridgeshire District Council will be knocking on doors over the next few weeks to talk about waste and recycling.

As well as explaining how the new wheeled bin recycling service will work, the officers from the Waste Services Team will be there to answer any questions people may have as well as research attitudes to recycling and reuse.

The team have been in Mepal and Wilburton this week and will be visiting homes in other parts of East Cambridgeshire where there are no specific events scheduled ahead of the introduction of the new service.

Councillor Kevin Ellis, Chairman of the Waste & Environment sub-committee at East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “With the introduction of any new service it is really important that we make sure people understand how it works. This is why officers have visited events, supermarkets and are now knocking on doors in the District. We are doing this to answer any questions people may have as well as ask a few of our own about attitudes to recycling and reuse. We believe the new waste service will not just improve recycling rates but will make life easier for many people.”

The new service starting from September can be broken down as follows:

•    A new wheeled bin recycling collection, including paper, glass, food & drinks cans, plastic bottles & hard plastic food containers, cartons and cardboard. This will be collected fortnightly.
•    A new wheeled bin collection for organics to include food and garden waste. This will also be collected fortnightly.

The service will operate on an alternate week basis where residents will be asked to put one wheeled bin out for collection one week followed by their other bin the following week. This is addition to the weekly black sack waste collections.

Properties judged unable to accept wheeled bin services because of space or access issues will be offered an alternative service based on clear sacks for recycling and continuation of the existing brown sack service for food and garden waste.

There will also be a fleet of new vehicles for the new services as well as a rescheduling of rounds to reduce carbon emissions.

These changes are possible after East Cambridgeshire District Council successfully won £5 million from Central Government to fund a new recycling service and retain weekly waste collections last year.

For more information on the waste and recycling service in East Cambridgeshire please visit www.eastcambs.gov.uk or call 01353 665555.