More than five million blue waste bags will be out for delivery from Wokingham Borough Council from 3rd February
They will be distributed to all houses in the borough over the next five weeks, with each household receiving 80 bags in two rolls of 40.
This will cover the period between April 2020 and March 2021. Blue bags were first introduced back in 2012 to restrict the volume of waste per household to approximately 120 litres per week.
The size and quality of the bags remains the same. The Council can only collect waste in these council branded bags.
Waste collections will continue to be on a weekly basis and the number of bags each household receives will not reduce.
There have been slight changes to the blue bag scheme this year, as larger families who used to automatically receive extra bags will no longer do so.
Since the scheme was launched in 2012 we have increased our recycling options to include additional plastic containers, tetrapak and food waste so many residents may no longer require the additional supply.
If you are a larger family, with five or more living permanently in your household, then you can visit our website from June (search blue bags) to apply for additional blue bags.
You will then receive a voucher and be able to collect these from the council’s offices or your local library, when the stocks are in.
“Our residents are finding they need fewer and fewer blue bags by making the most of our extensive recycling services at the kerbside – helping us achieve our aim to recycle more than 50 per cent of our waste in borough,” said Cllr Parry Batth, executive member for environment and leisure.
Anyone wishing to know when their allocation will be delivered can do so by visiting the council’s website (search ‘annual blue bag delivery’).
If residents are unsure of their collection day this can also be checked on the council’s website (search ‘collection days’).
Residents should be aware our garden waste renewal service is changing, with those who are currently signed up being sent letters telling the how to opt into the service online for 2020-21. These will be sent out in early March, slightly later than usual.
The council’s food waste service continues to run successfully after launching in April last year.
Since it started 3,783 tonnes of food waste have been turned into energy – boosting recycling rates to more than 55 per cent.
It has also boosted recycling habits across the borough with 859 additional tonnes of plastic, paper and metal materials collected kerbside compared to the previous year.
“Our food waste scheme has been a runaway success and we can only thank our residents for taking to it so readily,” Cllr Batth added.
“It’s really heartening to see how it has also boosted recycling habits for our kerbside collections, with our residents making sure Wokingham borough continues to increase its recycling percentages annually.”
Residents are able to collect more food waste bags, free of charge, from the main council offices at Shute End or from libraries across the borough.
