HALF the homes in the city will see their black recycling boxes replaced with wheelie bins under a new scheme which has been widely praised by councillors and residents.

Homeowners who have had the new facility during a trial have been delighted, calling the bins cleaner and easier to use.

However data from the trial has shown that recycling has only increased four per cent under the scheme which still leaves Brighton and Hove’s rates far below the national average.

And unions have warned that unless service provision and reliability improves, the situation will not improve despite the £1.1million being spent.

Under the plan, which is expected to be approved by the council’s Policy and Resources committee, 60,000 homes will be provided with the new tall 240-litre flip-top bins which will take all kinds of recyclable refuse apart from glass.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s agreement with Veolia means the authority is paid more money if glass is recycled separately.

Currently households have to divide different types of waste into different black plastic boxes which are frequently not collected if ‘cross-contaminated.’

The trial across 4,000 households in 80 streets around Hangleton and Portslade has seen 1.1 kg more waste per collection recycled and household waste going to landfill drop by 1.2kg per household in the first six months since its launch in November. That is an improvement of four per cent.

Sally Drury, 72, whose home was included in the trial, said: “It’s been brilliant. It would be better if they took the glass as well, but it’s much easier without a doubt.

“Before I had to shuffle around the bins and lift one up and take one down from on top of another to put the right thing in the right box. This way you’ve just got one bin.

“There’s also just one to put out on the collection day, before I’d be back and forth three or four times. And it’s much tidier.”

But she added that the new bin had not increased her recycling because she had long been fastidious in recycling everything possible.

Green and Conservative councillors have largely supported the Labour administration’s scheme.

Green councillor Louisa Greenbaum told The Argus: “This will help but it won’t be significant.”

Mark Turner of the GMB union warned that the focus on the trial area may have produced a misleading result.

He said: “It’s not the method it’s the service. Where they’ve done the trial the crew in that area has always gone out. Elsewhere the problem can be that if a vehicle doesn’t go out, that collection won’t then happen for another two weeks. And people can’t recycle if there’s no space in the boxes.”

He said the £1m being spent on the scheme should be invested in improving the existing service.

GREEN DREAMS HARD TO MAKE INTO REALITY

FOR the only city in the country represented by a Green MP, Brighton and Hove’s recycling rates are almost comically low.

Leafy South Oxfordshire District Council topped the most recent poll of local authority recycling rates, published by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last year, with a “recycling, reuse and composting” rate of 67.3 per cent.

Brighton and Hove was down in position 338 of 352 authorities, with just 25.2 per cent.

Under a wheelie bin trial in Hangleton rates have improved four per cent and the expansion of the programme to an additional 60,000 homes will encompass almost half the city’s residents.

If the improvement seen in the trial were replicated in all homes which get the new bins, the city’s overall rate would go up approximately half a percentage point – enough to catapult us from position 338 to the lofty heights of position 336.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of the environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “Results from the recycling wheelie bin trial have been really encouraging as residents have clearly enjoyed the opportunity to recycle much more of their household waste.

“We know that there is a strong demand for recycling wheelie bins from residents in other areas of the city so I am pleased that we are now in a position to consider extending the service to many more households.

“This is a major step towards our commitment to providing a more tailor made recycling service for all our residents.”

But for many this is about convenience, not recycling rates.

Tony Janio, Conservative councillor for Hangleton and Knoll and the party’s lead on environmental issues, said: “I have never had such a positive response to anything the council has done before.

“In fact I was out talking to residents the other day in an adjacent ward and the only thing people wanted to talk about was when were they getting their bins.

“It’s fantastic – it takes more recycling, it’s more covered so things don’t get wet, it’s not as noisy when they collect it, it’s cleaner, you don’t have to cart one box down to get to others.

“It hasn’t increased rates very much. But this is exactly what we should be doing; it’s not about recycling rates, it’s about making life easier for people in the city – what’s wrong with that?”

Frances Horsley, 59, from Hangleton, was thrilled to be part of the trial area.

She said: “I think it’s a great improvement.

“They’re less heavy to pull around, the boxes were heavy to move. And you can get more in the bins, especially larger cardboard items.”

Green Party councillor Louisa Greenbaum stressed that whatever the benefits in terms of convenience – and her party is supporting the Labour scheme – it won’t make a big impact on recycling rates.

She said: “Longer term we need to reduce the amount of packaging we’re producing.

“This will help but it won’t be significant. And the reason is it won’t work as well in some of the central wards as it has in Hangleton.”

She and others are concerned that areas like Hangleton are not the problem dragging down the city’s figures.

And with wheelie bins only being offered to homes with the space to store them off the pavement, this initiative will not penetrate the poorer areas of the city where the greatest improvement is needed.

Mark Turner of the GMB union also questioned whether even among those households due to get new wheelie bins, the four per cent figure will be replicated.

He put the improvements in Hangleton down to a focus on delivering regular collections during the trial and stressed that the biggest problem with recycling is missed collection due to staffing shortages or vehicle breakdown.

When a refuse collection is missed, another truck usually covers the round the following day.

In the case of recycling, a missed collection means another fortnight to wait, with full black boxes overflowing with recycling.

He also thinks councillors have not spotted that this £1.1 million scheme will add to running costs.

He said: “The other thing they’ve missed is that this will take longer and push up costs.”

He said when a refuse crew of three operatives plus a driver collect black recycling boxes, they pull around a “slave bin” on foot into which they empty the boxes.

This is sufficient for three to four houses and is then dragged back to the truck, where it is attached and tipped into the vehicle.

The hydraulic lifting is the longest part of the job, taking around 60 to 90 seconds.

This will now have to happen for each wheelie bin.

ONLY MOAN IS FROM THOSE WHO CAN’T JOIN IN

COUNCILLORS unanimously supported plans to introduce wheelie bins for recycling.

Members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee last night asked for the scheme to be approved.

Tony Janio, the councillor who represents Hangleton and Knoll, said he had received “100 per cent positive feedback” from a trial before the project was rolled out to half the city’s homes.

He added: “The only moaning we’ve had is from residents who won’t be included in the scheme asking when they can get them.”

Councillor Joe Miller, who speaks for residents living in the coastal part of Rottingdean, said: “This is a chance to bust some myths about what you have to do to containers before they can be recycled.

“It would be great to also get more communal recycling bins for blocks of flats.”

Councillor Alan Robins, which represents South Portslade, said: “I’ve been part of this trial area and its marvellous.

“I’ve had neighbours embrace me in the street to tell me how great it is.”

Lee Wares, member for Patcham, praised the scheme but warned the bins used on the trial were too light so fell over when they were empty and could be damaged.

Council officers will assess each street to see if residents have space to keep a wheelie bin.

There are plans for residents to be allowed different sizes and amounts of bins.

Councillors asked that plans to increase the number of communal recycling bins for blocks of flats and crowded city centre homes are considered in the future.

It is expected to be rubber stamped at tomorrow’s policy and resources committee meeting.