150 residents a day put out wrong bins

South Staffordshire District Council began delivering 29,000 new bins to residents last month but said they should not be used until the start of April.

Jackie Smith, the council's director of environmental services, said: "Approximately 150 properties per day are putting out their blue bin for collection.

"This is out of a total on average of 4,500 properties which receive their recycling collection each day.

"The proportion of residents making the mistake each day is around four per cent. Some homes have still not received the new bins, but will do by the end of this month."

The new bins will replace the current recycling box and newspaper bag with a single wheelie bin for all recycling.

They will be used alongside the existing rubbish bin and garden waste bin.

South Staffordshire District Council leader Councillor Brian Edwards said: "We've put out a leaflet with every bin saying residents need to start putting them out on April 1.

"It was also in our newsletter called The Review which should now have been sent to most, if not all, households. We want to make sure people know not to use them yet. Of course, it's only really a matter of weeks now for residents but they should not put them out yet."

The move will cost the council around £880,000 which bosses said will be less than £20 a house for the bin to be made and delivered.

Bosses believe the new system can save around £15,000 a year because they are currently having to send out 4,500 additional or replacement green boxes every year for people who have either run out of space for their rubbish or have broken them.

The service is also designed to help the council cut the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill. It recycles and composts 50 per cent of what it collects.

The council collects its rubbish fortnightly.

Telford company Craemer has been awarded the contract to manufacture and distribute the blue bins.