Why your green bin may not be a green bin and where to put your sticker for North Northants Council waste collections

Some householders in the North Northants Council (NNC) area opting-in to pay for their garden waste bins may be given another coloured bin to aid ‘harmonisation’.

Currently different areas have different colours for their green waste and those in East Northants have had to pay extra for it to be collected.

From April 3 a new subscription garden waste collection service begins for all residents across the north of the county.

All future garden waste bins will be black with brown lids – but new ones will not be issued unless the old ones are ‘no longer serviceable’.

A spokesman for North Northants Council said: “As part of the service harmonisation, the aim is to have the same bin colours across the NNC area. This makes operations more efficient, improves communication and is more cost-effective to buy the bins.

“We are not removing serviceable bins to achieve this aim, we will only issue the new colours where an existing bin is no longer serviceable.

“The new colours are in line with national guidance on colours linked to different materials, which is best practice.

“Bins taken out of service are either repaired and re-used, or if they are beyond repair, they are recycled.”

Up until now, homes in the Corby area use green bins for ‘green’ waste, Kettering area residents have grey or green bins and Wellingborough uses brown bins.

East Northamptonshire area bins are black with a brown lid – and it is these bins that will be issued in the future to new customers and those requiring new bins to ‘unify’ the service.

It is not clear when the new two-tone bins will be rolled out as customers in Kettering were delivered new green ‘green’ bins earlier this month.

When the new subscription-only green waste collections start, people not opting in to the service will be left with an extra wheelie bin.

But it has been confirmed the surplus to requirement bins will not be collected immediately.

Those who do pay for their ‘green’ bin will be sent a sticker in the post and it should be fixed on the bin lid facing towards the front of the bin or placed on the back of the bin below the handles – to stop the sticker being damaged or worn away at the front.

By law, garden waste must be collected separately and it costs NNC about £3m a year to provide the service.

Residents have been warned they should not use their black general waste bin to dispose of garden waste.

Advice from NNC says: “If we find garden waste in a general refuse or recycling bin, it will be tagged to inform you why we can't empty it. If it happens repeatedly, we'll write to you and explain what the issue is as part of our policy to raise awareness amongst residents.

“We may issue a fixed penalty notice if you persistently ignore the rules around bin waste and it causes a nuisance, or, it is likely to have a negative impact on our services. We would do this in line with our enforcement and waste policies and is a last resort.”