Your bins will be collected on a two-weekly collection cycle, one week your landfill (refuse) bin and red caddy for plastic bottles and cans will be emptied and the following week your bin for green waste and blue caddy for paper will be emptied. Please refer to your recycling collection calendar which should have been sent to all households.

Why are we changing to alternate weekly collections?

Two-weekly collections are the most cost-effective method for providing quality waste collection services that meet both the needs of the residents and recycling targets as set by the government.

Why won't you empty my landfill (refuse) bin weekly?

Weekly landfill waste collections provide no incentive for residents to recycle. The Council will still be collecting waste materials each week but the materials will be separated making it easier to recycle and compost them.

Is Wealden the only Council using alternate weekly landfill & recycling collections?

No, more than 150 Councils around the UK use this type of collection and this figure is increasing.

Why do I have to put my bin out for collection by 7am?

All our landfill and recycling collection crews start at 7am. You will need to put your bins out at the boundary of you property by this time to ensure collection.

What do I do if I have extra landfill waste that won't fit in my bin? Will it be collected if I place it next to my bin or on top of my caddy?

We have found from previous experience that if we collect extra landfill waste from households the amount of recycling collected significantly reduces. Therefore extra bags of landfill waste placed by the side of the bin or on top of the caddy will not be collected. It is the householders responsibility to take any additional landfill waste to a Household Waste Recycling Site for disposal. However, the idea of the recycling scheme is not that residents should have to dispose of their waste on a regular basis. If you find you are creating additional waste on a regular basis please follow our advice on how to deal with additional waste.

Can I have a larger bin or a second bin for my landfill waste?

We can provide a larger landfill bin in certain circumstances but in each situation the household must be making an effort to recycle. Please contact Waste Management for more information.

Is it hygienic to leave landfill waste for two weeks?

The Council's Food and Health & Safety section consider that there should be no environmental health problems arising from landfill waste being left for two weeks, providing basic precautions are met. Items such as milk cartons can be rinsed out before being put into the bin, and all landfill waste should be securely tied in plastic bags. Bags of landfill waste should not be left on the ground where they could be opened by animals. Good food hygiene in the kitchen will minimise the ability of flies to lay eggs on waste food etc. For Further advice, please see our wheelie bin hygiene tips.

The wheeled bins are actually designed to last for two weeks before being emptied. When they were first introduced into the District, large rural areas only had their landfill waste collected every two weeks.

My bin smells and I have got problems with flies and maggots

Please see our advice on wheelie bin hygiene tips.

How can I distinguish between my wheelie bins?

Each bin will have different coloured caddies inside them - the landfill (refuse) bin will have a red caddy for plastic bottles and cans and the green waste bin will have a blue caddy for paper. You should also have received a red sticker for your landfill (refuse) bin and a green sticker for your green waste bin. Please ensure you put your house name or number in the space provided on the stickers to ensure your bin is emptied on collection day.

Will the council be putting microchips in my bins to monitor my waste?

No, the Council has no plans to microchip the bins, if this was to be considered residents would be consulted in advance of any decisions being made.

Is it possible to discuss the scheme in person?

If you have serious concerns over the scheme or are confused by how it works please call the Waste Management team. If needed our officers are happy to visit you at home to discuss the scheme.

Why are you only collecting plastic bottles and not all types of plastic packaging?

Unfortunately the current situation regarding recycling household plastic packaging is quite complex and confusing. Plastic bottles are only made of 3 plastic polymers, HDPE, PET or PVC (numbers 1, 2 and 3) and can be easily identified and recycled. The reprocessor that Wealden sends the bottles to is based in Lincolnshire and uses passive infrared technology to sort these three types of bottles, and then to wash and granulate them ready for sale, mainly in the UK, for new plastic products. Other types of plastic packaging are more complex for them to process. Even though the packaging may have the same identification markings as the bottles many trays are labeled incorrectly (as they have been manufactured outside the UK), or actually made of a combination of plastics laminated together, so they are not a single plastic polymer. This means that in general other types of food trays cannot be sorted by infrared and so they are all baled separately and exported to the Far East. At present no plastic food packaging other than bottles can be recycled in the UK.

However, there is research taking place at the moment to see how other packaging such as margarine tubs, strawberry punnets etc can be recycled and whether UK markets can be found for this mixed material. As such we have chosen to collect plastic bottles only initially and wait until there are established markets in the UK for other food packaging before we expand collections of this sort.

What do I do if I have extra plastic bottles, cans or paper that won't fit in my recycling caddy?

Any extra plastic bottles or cans which won’t fit into the caddy can placed in a suitable container next to the bin (please note that recycling left by the side of the bin will only be taken providing the caddy has also been used and placed in the bin). Alternatively, they can be taken to one of the Neighbourhood Recycling Points or Household Waste Recycling Sites in the area.

Unfortunately, at this time, not all of our collection crews are able to take extra paper, as some of the rounds are full to capacity. Please ask your collection crew if they can take the extra paper or take it to one of the Neighbourhood Recycling Points or Household Waste Recycling Sites in the area.

Do I need to wash my cans and plastic bottles, if so why?

We do ask residents to rinse out their cans and plastic bottles for three main reasons

Residents are less likely to get maggots and smells in the red caddy.

Our operatives at our Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Uckfield have to handle the material during the sorting process.

Once the materials are taken to the MRF they can be there for several weeks before being collected and taken off for recycling. Every resident that rinses out the cans and plastic bottles significantly reduces the unpleasant odours at the MRF.

What sort of cardboard can go in the bin for green waste?

Corrugated cardboard boxes (please remove any parcel tape)

Cereal packets and other similar boxes such as those for cat food

Soap powder boxes and inner tubes from kitchen paper etc.

Recycled cardboard used for egg boxes and some fruit and vegetable trays

Card sleeves from things like food tins, beer bottles etc.

Frozen / chilled food cartons. Please note ‘waxed’ cartons are not suitable (these include fruit juice / UHT milk cartons, Tetra Paks and some yoghurt pots and ice cream tubs)

Shredded paper

Greetings cards (without glitter or other materials stuck on)

What is the difference between cardboard and paper?

Cardboard is generally used for a packaging material (except for greetings cards), whilst paper is purely used for reading material.

Why can't I put garden waste & cardboard into plastic bags before it goes in the bin for green waste?

Plastic bags contaminate the green waste collection. If plastic bags in the green waste bin are tipped into the truck, the whole truckload is contaminated and will be rejected at the composting facility.

Can I put my garden waste & cardboard in home compostable or bio-degradable bags?

Unfortunately we can not accept any of the home compostable bags that the supermarkets are now selling or using for some of their products as our collection crews are not able to distinguish between these and the normal bags. You can place this type of bag in your own home compost bin but we would recommend that you do not tie them up with you compostable waste in them as they will take longer for everything to compost down.

We also can not accept biodegradable bags for composting as again the crews can not distinguish between them and a normal bag and they also take too long to breakdown. This type of bag can be used in your landfill bin.

If you would don't want to put your green waste directly into the bin, you can use paper bags or cardboard boxes.

What about extra garden waste that will not fit into the bin?

Extra garden waste can be taken to one of the Household Waste Recycling Sites. Alternatively, why not consider purchasing a home compost bin or Green Johanna. These units are on offer from Wealden (pdf 78.8KB) but are limited to one unit per household and stocks are limited (Please note Wealden no longer have any Green Johanna's available). However, both units can be purchased through offers run by East Sussex County Council.

Why can't I put food waste into my bin for green waste?

Due to UK legislation under the "Animal By-Products Regulation" following the foot and mouth epidemic, we are unable to take cooked or uncooked food waste in the bin for green waste. The regulations state that there may be a small risk that for example a potato peeling in someone’s kitchen may come in contact with a piece of meat that may be infected with a disease such as foot and mouth. That piece of potato peeling if then placed into the bin for green waste will then subsequently be taken to the composting site at Isfield to be composted in the open. A bird or animal could then easily spread the disease from the composting site. We could compost within an enclosed building that meets all the strict regulations, or alternatively "in vessel" the material. However, these options would be at an extreme cost to the council and at this time is not a viable option. Please home compost food waste wherever possible. Wealden and East Sussex County Council have several offers on compost bins and food digesters.

Are there any options for cooked food waste?

There are two types of food digester, Green Cones and Green Johanna's, and a kitchen composter which are specifically designed for cooked food waste and kitchen scraps, including meat and fish. The food digesters are also rodent proof. All three units are available to all East Sussex residents at discount prices.

Will the contents of the bin for green waste be decomposing after two weeks?

No, in fact there will be little decomposition because a sealed bin excludes the elements needed to rot the waste down; such as air, bacteria, fungi & worms.

What about litter from rabbits, gerbils etc?

Pet litter / bedding from vegetarian pets can be placed in the bin for green waste. It must not be placed in plastic sacks, use cardboard boxes, paper sacks or clean newspaper only. In all other cases pet litter should be sealed in plastic and placed in the landfill bin.

Why don't you collect glass from the kerbside?

We need to keep the different coloured glass separate so they can continue to be recycled into new bottles and jars over and over again (infinitely). If we collected mixed glass it could only be recycled once into aggregate for road building or a similar material. Therefore we would need an additional vehicle, for every two of our collection rounds, that has 3 compartments to collect glass on top of the existing refuse & recycling vehicle which currently is not economically viable. There are also health and safety concerns of leaving glass at the kerbside for collection.

Please take your glass to your local Neighbourhood Recycling Point.

Our family produces lots of disposable nappies

Please flush / sluice all solids down the toilet and securely wrap nappies in plastic bags. You may be interested in the modern alternative washable nappies with Velcro or ‘pop’ fasteners. Washable nappy starter packs are available from just £5.00 and loan packs are available to those in receipt of benefits. Wealden also have a trial pack available to all residents to allow them to try different types of nappies before they buy.

Why can't we have the same scheme that operates in the main towns within Wealden?

Please see our information on Why we are trialing a new recycling scheme.

Why do I pay so much Council Tax for my bins to be collected?

In 2006/07 the cost of the waste collection in Wealden was £52.48 per household per year. This works out to £1.00 per week, which we think is great value for money. The target for this financial year(2007/08) is £54.

Due to the other Councl's in the area operating various different schemes, we are unable to directly compare our costs to the other Council's in East Sussex.