Recycling shake-up to save Stafford tax payers £130k a year

Residents will be receiving a blue bag for paper and cardboard in a move that will improve the quality of recycling, ensure recycling stays in the UK for processing - and save money.

Currently cardboard goes in the mixed recycling blue bin and can often be contaminated by other materials - such as glass - which reduces its quality for selling on. The reusable bag system is already used widely throughout neighbouring Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.

Stafford Borough Council will be sending letters out to residents next week to explain the change.

The blue bin will still be used for tins, plastics and glass with a list of what can and cannot be recycled available on the council’s website and will be sent out to homes in the borough along with a new recycling and waste collection calendar.

Councillor Jonathan Price, the cabinet member for environment at the borough council, said residents increasingly questioned where recycling ended up after it was thrown out.

“The focus is now on the quality of recycling and with the introduction of the blue bag we will give our residents confidence in what happens with the materials we collect from the kerbside.”

The bags will be delivered to around 59,000 homes from the middle of March and will be collected on the normal blue bin day - with the move expected to save council taxpayers around £130,000 a year.

Councillor Price added: “Introducing the blue bag will have a positive impact on what we recycle and, importantly, it will ensure it will stay in the UK for processing.”

Approximately 52 per cent is recycled from the household waste collection in the borough.

You can find out more from staffordbc.gov.uk/bluebag