South Kesteven District Council has been working hard for several weeks delivering purple-lidded bins to residents ready for the new separate collections of paper and card. We are doing this to help you recycle as much of your waste as possible.
You can now start to place your dry, clean, waste paper and cardboard into your new purple-lidded wheeled bin ahead of the first collection during the week beginning Monday February 5th.
The rest of your clean, dry recycling (glass bottles, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, metal tins and cans) should be put loose in the silver bin as usual. Please do not put them in plastic bags before putting them in the bin.
When paper and cardboard is placed in your silver recycling bin, it can get mixed with other materials (plastic, glass and metals) and become contaminated with small amounts of food waste or liquid left in tins/containers, or broken glass. This makes it almost impossible to recycle.
To check your individual bin collection days, please visit www.southkesteven.gov.uk/bincollectionday
All residents who have a standard-size wheeled bin should by now have received a purple-lidded bin. If you have not had yours yet, please call us on 01476 406544 or email recycling@southkesteven.gov.uk
We will not empty your bins if you put incorrect items in them. This is because we want to make sure that as much of the waste you have carefully separated for recycling can be recycled. We will be working hard with residents to make sure you continue to recycle everything that you can in the simplest and easiest way. Please also check online: www.southkesteven.gov.uk/whichbin
Under the new system, your clean, dry paper and cardboard will be sent directly to a dedicated paper mill which can recycle it into paper-based products. If every person in the country recycled just 10% more paper it would save approximately five million trees each year.
From Monday February 5th, the Council will NOT be able to take any additional material, known as side waste, (including cardboard) placed next to any of your bins, whether it is in bags or not. Excess waste will need to be disposed of at your nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre. Locations can be found at
www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/recycling-waste or by calling 01522 782070.
Our staff are working directly with those residents without bins who use sack collections, and those who use bins in communal areas. These householders should continue to put paper and card in with recycling on the new silver bin collection weeks. This is because the paper mill is not currently able to accept plastic sacks.
Answers to your FAQs can be found online at www.southkesteven.gov.uk/PCFAQ
Please make sure all your waste is placed inside the correct bin and put at the kerbside by 7.30am on your collection day.
All other waste collection arrangements will continue as normal.
- You can visit www.southkesteven.gov.uk/recyclinglist for information on how to cut down on the waste you produce: we all need to do everything possible to help our environment by reducing the amount of waste we produce, and reusing items where we can.
- When thinking about disposing of your garden waste, have you considered home composting in the first instance? This is the most environmentally friendly and natural way to dispose of garden waste. More details on home composting can be found online at www.southkesteven.gov.uk/composting
Previous news, October 2023
More than 68,000 households across South Kesteven are to receive information packs explaining how their recycling collections are about to change.
From early February 2024, South Kesteven District Council will collect paper and cardboard separately from the rest of the domestic household recycling.
From that date, paper and cardboard must be put into a new, purple-lidded bin.
The clean, dry paper and card will then be taken directly to a dedicated paper mill for recycling into paper-based products. This cannot happen if paper or card is contaminated by other kinds of waste.
The distinctive new bins will start to be delivered to people’s homes in the next few weeks, ready for the launch of the new system next Spring.
The information pack being posted to every home contains a letter to residents, a leaflet about what goes in each bin – and the popular annual bin collection calendar for South Kesteven.
Householders currently place waste paper and card in the silver recycling bin. This means it is often mixed with other materials and can become contaminated with food waste, liquid, or broken glass, which makes it almost impossible to recycle efficiently.
SKDC Deputy Chief Executive, Richard Wyles, said: “Together, we need to do all we can to help our environment by reducing the amount of waste we produce and reusing items where we can.
“Our trained SKDC team, in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council, will work hard to help everyone get ready for this change, and we are already hosting information roadshows across the district to put people in the picture.”
Residents need to keep putting paper and card into the silver bin until SKDC notifies them to start using the purple-lidded bin in February.
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Recycling centre details: www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/recycling-waste
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Collection dates: www.southkesteven.gov.uk/bincollectionday
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How to cut down on the waste you produce: www.southkesteven.gov.uk/recyclinglist
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Answers to frequently asked questions: www.southkesteven.gov.uk/PCFAQ
This project follows the successful implementation of this new collection across North Kesteven, Boston Borough, West Lindsey and East Lindsey District Councils.
Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste, Councillor Rhys Baker, said: "Because some people put the wrong materials in their recycling bin, it can mean that paper and card contaminated with liquids or food has to be disposed of rather than recycled.
"If this scheme goes ahead as planned, it will be a big change for residents across the district, so we will be sharing information about the changes, a recycling guide showing what goes in which bin - plus a guide for the new purple-lidded bin for clean and dry paper and card.
"It will mean paper and card can be kept clean, dry and separate from other recycling so it can be sent to a dedicated UK processor.
"The introduction of the purple-lidded bin in other areas of Lincolnshire has proved that collecting paper and cardboard separately is the most efficient and effective method of collecting good quality material for recycling, which we hope residents will support."
More than 12.5m tonnes of paper and card are used in the UK each year, accounting for 20% of all household waste. The average family throws away around six trees worth of paper every year so if every person recycled just 10% more paper it would save approximately 5 million trees each year.
A report to SKDC's Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee said contamination rates in all of the materials collected for recycling had dropped from around 30% to 15% where the scheme has rolled already in other parts of Lincolnshire.
It added: "During the initial trials in other district areas feedback was sought, with 82% of responses stating that they would be happy to continue with the separate collection of paper and card beyond the trial."
This scheme would replace one of the existing fortnightly recycling collections so there would be no increase in mileage - and associated carbon emissions - of the Council fleet. Costs would be met by Lincolnshire County Council, which is responsible for disposing of waste across the county.
It is proposed that the roll-out of separate paper and card collections would begin in the autumn with publicity and delivery of bins. The first collection would be February 2024.
Councillor Daniel McNally, Lincolnshire County Council's Executive Member for Waste, said: "Across Lincolnshire we have been looking at ways to try and improve the quality of all the recycling we collect and support our residents to put the right thing in the right bin.
"This way as much as possible of the waste we produce is recycled."