Slop buckets refused by 5,000

Five thousand people in Wolverhampton have refused to accept new bins to recycle their food slops, it emerged today.

Wolverhampton City Council began delivering slop buckets to thousands of homes in the city on Monday.

Every house in the city, except high rise flats, will receive them unless residents phoned Wolverhampton City Council by January 5 to opt out.

Council bosses did not advertise the telephone number to call but supplied it to the Express & Star after being asked what residents needed to do if they did not want to recycle their food scraps.

The two kitchen caddies, one for keeping inside and another for outside, bring the total number of council bins in every house to six. They are in addition to the black wheelie bin for normal rubbish, the green one for garden waste, a green box for paper, glass and cans and a white bag for plastic and card.

Today the council admitted it had given out some food bins to people who had asked not to receive them.

Bosses said they would go around and collect them once they have all been delivered by the end of February. The last areas to get them will be Pendeford and Oxley.

In the meantime they today urged residents to give the scheme a try.

Alistair Merrick, Wolverhampton City Council's chief officer for commercial services and public realm, said: "Five thousand equates to just over five per cent of the 98,000 eligible households, in other words 95 per cent of people have not opted out.

"As the caddies are being distributed around the city the reaction on the doorsteps has been largely positive and people are telling us that they will give the scheme a go.

"We've even had examples of some people who initially opted out actually reversing their decision as they are seeing the caddies being delivered and taking the opportunity to talk to staff about the scheme.

"Nobody will be forced to participate, we would just urge people to keep and open mind, give it a try and see how they get on."

The council will spend £462,000 a year collecting food waste to turn into energy and compost but bosses estimate this is £30,000 cheaper than sending it to landfill or burning it, which also provides energy.

Residents in Low Hill, Park Village and Bushbury are getting their slop buckets this week.

Ashmore Park and Wednesfield get them from Monday, 17, while Bilston and East Park residents receive theirs from January 24.

Penn, Merry Hill and Blakenhall residents will take delivery from February 7 while Tettenhall, Whitmore Reans and Bantock get them from February 14. The last residents to receive them will be Pendeford and Oxley from February 21.