- Do YOU have a story? Email freya.barnes@mailonline.co.uk
A new kerbside recycling scheme for soft plastic items people often struggle to dispose of is set to be introduced across all councils in England by March 2027.
North Somerset Council will be one of the first local authorities to rollout the new scheme which makes it easier to recycle items such as plastic bags, crisp packets, dog food pouches, bread bags and cling film.
As of last week, people living in the area were asked to bag up their soft plastic waste and put it in their green mixed glass recycling bin before leaving it outside to be collected.
They are asked to use a plastic bag they would already be throwing away, such as a bread bag and no bigger than a carrier bag, squash all the air out and tie it with a knot.
Some people’s collection day has changed as part of the switch to three weekly bin collections, whereas they were previously collected fortnightly.
Anyone who faces a gap of over three weeks between their old and new collection day will have an interim one-off collection, which may be on a Saturday.
Most people’s recycling and waste collection day will also change in June to increase the efficiency of collections, reduce carbon emissions, and improve reliability of the service.
People in North Somerset have one green box for mixed glass recycling, which is now also used for soft plastics, another for mixed paper and card, a third brown box for food waste, a large black bin for general waste and a green one for garden waste.
They must also bag up small appliances, mixed textiles and clothes and batteries separately for collection.
Your browser does not support iframes.
As of last week, people living in the district were asked to bag up their soft plastic waste and put it in their green mixed glass recycling bin before leaving it outside to be collected (stock image)
Out of the 311,000 tonnes of plastics found on supermarket shelves just 6 per cent is recycled, according to one estimate from Recycle Now (stock image)
People living in North Somerset are asked to use a plastic bag they would already be throwing away, such as a bread bag and no bigger than a carrier bag, squash all the air out and tie it with a knot (stock image)
So far, it is unclear what the rules will be for other councils as the scheme is rolled out across the rest of England over the next two years because each area has varying procedures and bins.
North Somerset Council said soft plastic waste accounted for around 10 per cent of black bin waste in the county.
It claims the new strategy will save them money by cutting back on black bin collections as they will be emptier and will allow residents to recycle more plastic.
The recycled soft plastics will be reused and turned into items such as bags for life or traffic cones, the council said.
Out of the 311,000 tonnes of plastics found on supermarket shelves just 6 per cent is recycled, according to one estimate from Recycle Now.
Before the scheme, people had to take their soft plastic waste to their local supermarket who collected it and claimed they were sending it off to be recycled.
The vast majority of people didn’t and instead put it in with their general household waste.
But those who did make the effort were perhaps wasting their time as an investigation by Everyday Plastic and the Environmental Investigation Agency found 70 per cent of the soft plastic being collected by supermarkets was actually being incinerated.
Other areas which have implemented the new soft plastic kerbside recycling scheme include Solihull in the West Midlands, South Gloucestershire and East Dunbartonshire and Fife in Scotland.
Maldon and Penarth are also trialling the scheme.
