Pendle News Room

Over 13,000 blue bins have been rolled out, with over 6,500 more on order to help people store paper and card until their next recycling collection.

“We’re asking anyone who’s not had their blue bin yet to please bear with us as demand has been high and this has been a big operation,” said Carole Taylor, Pendle Council’s Waste and Recycling Co-ordinator.
 “Because of the volume of requests, we can only handle requests for swaps or alterations on recycling containers from Monday 23rd April onwards,” Carole explained.

“Our priority is to get the initial delivery of bins out first, and the swaps will be done once most areas are completed,” she stressed.

“We are steadily getting the blue bins out, but if you’ve ordered one and it hasn’t arrived please visit www.pendle.gov.uk/bluebin and look at the blue bin delivery information for more details,” she added.

“Don’t forget, the new blue bins are optional and people can continue to recycle paper and card using their green box, a cardboard box or carrier bag,” said Carole.

New recycling and refuse collection calendars have been delivered by hand to over 34,000 homes in Pendle and people are being urged to check their calendar to find out what to put out and when.

Anyone without a calendar can find the information out on Pendle Council’s website www.pendle.gov.uk by putting their postcode and house number or name into the In My Area  Your Bin collection Day section on the bottom left of  the homepage.
 
Uzma Ahmed, a Customer Services Advisor at Pendle Council’s Contact Pendle centre in Nelson is featured on a billboard and other publicity flagging up the recycling changes.

Uzma said: “I’ve enjoyed being part of the campaign, helping to let people know it’s not too late to order a blue bin.
 
“We’ve had a huge volume of calls and people don’t realise how easy it is to order the bins themselves online via www.pendle.gov.uk/bluebin.  

“It takes less than two minutes and if people call us at this peak time they can be waiting on the line, which is frustrating for them and means staff are under pressure.

“People who don’t have internet access are welcome to come into Contact Pendle and use our PCs to order services including ordering a blue bin and there are friendly staff on hand to help,” she added.

“People can also make other requests for Pendle Council services online and it’s quicker than waiting on the line,” said Uzma.

David Walker, Pendle Council’s Environmental Services Manager explained the reasons for the changes, saying: 

“From this April we’ve lost Lancashire County Council’s annual subsidy of £760,000 towards our waste and recycling service, so we had to find a new way to provide this service.

“We’ve changed from the fortnightly collection scheme to a four weekly scheme to help us save around £190,000.
“From April we’ll empty brown bins for glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, metal cans and tins every four weeks and we’ll be doing the same for paper and card collections.” he said.

“Over 2,200 people gave their views about the best way for us to make the savings and well over half  said that they don’t put their recycling out every fortnight and would be willing to wait an extra two weeks,” he said.

Here’s an example of how the new collection system will work:
Week 1 Grey bin for rubbish 
Week 2 Brown bin for glass bottles/jars, cans and plastic bottles 
Week 3 Grey bin for rubbish 
Week 4 Blue bin/green box/cardboard box or carrier bag for cardboard and paper