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As part of its plans the Council will trial a scheme, which will see food waste, collected weekly, given some people's concerns about leaving this type of waste in bins for longer periods before being collected.

The changes are in line with a concerted effort to improve the Borough's recycling rates and meet the Government?s statutory targets - by 2010/11, 40 per cent of our household waste has to go for recycling. If the Council fails to achieve this target it will result in significant financial penalties.

In 2006/7 the amount of the Borough's waste going for recycling was just under 18 per cent so there is a big job to be done over the next two years to improve the Borough's recycling figures.

The Council is trialling a managed weekly collection service involving about 9,500 properties in Shaw and Chadderton.

This scheme collects non-recyclable waste (resident's grey bins) one week and recyclable waste the alternate week (the new brown bins) with a weekly collection of food waste. Householders will still receive a weekly waste collection, however there will be increased emphasis on the household to manage their waste.

This type of collection has been or is being considered by approximately three quarters of local authorities in the country with 19 out of the 20 top performing authorities currently collecting waste in this way.

In this trial area a new kerbside food waste collection service will also be introduced. It gives householders the opportunity to recycle all their food/kitchen waste, including fruit, vegetables, meat, bones and bread, with a weekly collection. Households are supplied with a 20 litre collection box, a small seven litre kitchen caddy and special compostable bin liners. Once collected the food waste will be heat treated and composted.

The Council is also trialling brown wheelie bins in this area instead of black boxes. This gives householders more room to recycle glass, cans and plastic bottles. Householders will be offered the opportunity to replace their black box with a wheelie bin but have the option to keep the black box if they prefer. The new brown wheelie bins will be collected from the same place as the grey refuse bin on a fortnightly basis.

Service Director for Waste Management Carol Brown said:

?Significant changes are needed to increase the amount of household waste we divert from landfill and re use or recycle. Everyone needs to work together to meet the Government?s challenging targets. The trials will provide a information on how new recycling schemes could work across the Borough and the new measures will support residents to help the Borough achieve its targets.?