More than half of Wokingham Borough’s households have now had their annual waste delivery, including the new waterproof recycling bags. 43,000 households have now had their items dropped at their doorsteps, with the packages also including 80 blue general waste bags and 100 food waste caddy liners.
Additional delivery crews are joining the rollout from this week, as planned, to help the council get the items to all residents by mid-April. The waterproof bags can be used as soon as residents get them. If residents have more recycling than the two bags can hold, they should keep using their black boxes, but only for non-paper/card items such as cans, tins and plastics. Additional bags will be available following the roll-out. More information on how residents will be able to get additional bags will be released in due course.
The council and its contractor expect to deliver to more than 10,000 properties each week from this point. All refuse and recycling collections will remain weekly on the same day as they are currently, only the container is changing. The waterproof bags will help stop valuable paper material getting wet and help the council meet its target of 70 per cent recycling by 2030.
“Thank you to all our residents who have got their bags and are putting them to good use,” said Clare Lawrence, assistant director for place. “It’s really important for everyone to start using their waterproof bags as soon as they get them and keep them sealed at all times other than when they are adding items to the bags. In the months and years ahead these bags will help us to boost the borough’s recycling rate as we continue to work towards our goal of 70 per cent recycling by 2030.”
Once residents have enough recycling bags, we are encouraging them to find a way to reuse the old black boxes if they can. Suggestions include using them for storage in the garden/shed/loft, making a planter or growing vegetables, using them for storing glass to take to the bottle bank or passing them to a neighbour who wants them.
Later this year there will be an organised collection for those who cannot repurpose their boxes at home. Residents will be sent more information on this during the summer.
Residents can check when their delivery is due by using the street name checking tool on our website. If residents check and find they’ve been missed, they should report the undelivered items on our website. They will then be added to our mop up deliveries when the initial rollout is complete.
