Liverpool households to receive new bins as city tackles ‘catastrophic’ recycling rate
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In a bid to improve waste management, Liverpool City Council has revealed plans to introduce a raft of new measures, including new bins for households. Homes are set to be provided with a new caddy for food waste, which will be collected separately to existing purple general waste bins, blue recycling bins and green garden waste bins. The changes will come into force next year.
Councillor Laura Robertson Collins, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods & Communities, said residents will not have to pay for the new food caddies but businesses will, and the waste will be collected weekly. She also said about one third of the waste that goes into Liverpool’s purple bins should actually be able to be composted.
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Hide AdThe latest recycling performance tables for England's local authorities - published earlier this year - revealed Liverpool’s league position had worsened, with the 2022/23 recycling rate falling to 17.9%. In comparison, the top authority was South Oxfordshire, which had a household waste recycling rate of 61.6%. Described as “catastrophic” by independent councillor Alan Gibbons, Liverpool placed second to bottom out of 333 local authorities.


In 2021, Liverpool Council undertook a comprehensive sampling exercise 'to help plan future waste management changes to improve help prevent, minimise or recycle waste'. The study identified that 28% of residual waste (purple bin) was food, and 76% of that food waste was avoidable waste, with 51% still in its packaging.
11% of the waste could have been recycled in either the blue or green bin, and 31% of households did not recycle. Of the household waste placed out for recycling, 28% was contaminated with non-recyclable materials including food, general mixed waste and non-recyclable plastics.
In a bid to improve waste management, Liverpool Council has revealed it will be introducing a raft of new measures, including introducing the new household bin that would prevent food waste from contaminating recycling, and encourage composting.
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Hide AdSpeaking to BBC Radio Merseyside, Laura Robertson Collins, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods & Communities said: “One of the things we will be seeing in the short term is the separate collection of food waste, so that will be a separate caddy for the food waste collection because currently a lot of waste that’s going into our purple bins, about a third of that waste, should actually be able to be composted.”
Cllr Robertson Collins said the move will save costs and penalties associated with incinerators, adding that the changes are “urgent.” She continued: “Environmentally, and literally for the cost for the council, it’s really important we make those changes.”


The changes to food waste will come into force next year, and affect the whole of Merseyside.
Liverpool’s street cleaning, parks maintenance and waste collection operations will also be brought back into the council’s full control, after a report revealed cleanliness of the city was the ‘number one priority’ of residents.
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Hide AdThese front-line services – such as emptying litter bins – have been delivered by the council-owned company, Liverpool Streetscene Services Ltd (LSSL), since 2016. But, at a council meeting on Tuesday (November 12), city leaders agreed they will be brought back in house.
Earlier this year, the local authority also announced plans to create a new taskforce to clean up our streets and tackle litter and fly-tipping.
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