THE council’s new waste and recycling collections service is rolling out across the borough from this week, with new containers starting to be given to every household.

Bin collections is one of the handful of council services that all residents see and use, so understandably it’s one that always attracts a lot of interest and comments.

Why we can't just have one bin for recycling

The most common question the council get (and one myself and other councillors have asked because we’re residents here too!) is why can’t we just have one bin for recycling like some other places do, and the answer is straightforward – a ‘one bin’ system is worse for the environment because material is cross-contaminated making recycling harder, and it’s expected that the government are going to introduce national rules for recycling to force every council to do what we do right now so it would be a huge waste of money to move away from the current system.

More recycling

The new Waste Strategy agreed by council earlier this year explains all this in far more detail than I can fit in here, and I encourage residents to read it via the link below to find out more. It spells out all the ways we are trying to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle, which tens of thousands of residents and businesses already do.

I thank them all – but we need more people to start playing their part if we’re going to achieve our mission of making waste a thing of the past.

My wife and I have two young children and we manage to separate and recycle the vast majority of our waste. It does take a bit of effort but it’s really not that hard to do and there is no excuse for not even trying.

Cost to the council of lumping it all in the brown bin

Just sticking all your rubbish in the brown bin might be easy but it costs the council money that could be used for other essential services.

The council found that more than 50% of what goes into brown bins could easily be recycled using the current containers. Every tonne of waste put in the brown bin costs taxpayers £120 for disposal and treatment.

A little effort from all of us would make a huge difference to budgets and the environment.

For lots of helpful information about waste and recycling, please visit www.sthelens.gov.uk/recycling.

Best wishes to all Star readers.

Readers can send letters for the Opinion page to news@sthelensstar.co.uk