New bin plans to be rolled out in the summer

CITY COUNCIL FINALLY GOES AHEAD WITH WASTE AND RECYCLING TRANSFORMATION

- JANE HAYNES News Reporter

A MASSIVE multi-million pound transformation of bin services and recycling in Birmingham is to finally go ahead next summer to end poor performance and recycling failures.

Striking workers will not derail the plans any longer, council leaders pledged. It follows a year of disruption.

The underperforming council will finally deliver the service Brummies deserve, with alternating fortnightly black bin and recycling collections and a new weekly food waste collection, said cabinet member for waste and the environment, Majid Mahmood, as he unveiled the delayed plan.

The service was in dire need of a shakeup, with “longstanding issues and challenges” before the disruption caused by the bins strike, says a report to the council cabinet, meeting next week.

It had the worst recycling record of all major city councils, at just 23%, pre-strike, and more than 121,000 bin collections were missed last year.

Under the transformed service, bin crews in smart new uniforms will do their rounds in high-tech new trucks kitted out with in-cab technology and 360-degree cameras to improve safety and manage the service “from afar”. There will also be live operational data feeds that support services and ensure greater efficiency.

New boxes will be delivered to homes ready for a new food waste collection service to start. A pilot scheme will run at 10,000 addresses from March, ready for a full rollout in June.

Households will have a total of three wheelie bins - one for landfill waste, one for plastics, cans and glass and one for paper and cardboard - along with the new food waste collection box.

The initial phase of the transformed service will see 70% of homes switch to the new regime.