WEST Somerset households will have their bins emptied only once every three weeks if a new recycling scheme is approved by the Somerset Waste Partnership’s board at a meeting in Taunton today (Friday).

On Wednesday, after meeting in closed session, West Somerset Council threw its weight behind the scheme, lining up with other councils across the county in recommending the move, which it is claimed would save around £1.7 million a year.

Rising costs of waste collection and disposal have worried partner councils for some time and the waste partnership was asked to look at alternative systems which would cut costs as landfill tax continued to rise.

When the proposals were first put forward, the partnership’s managing director Steve Read said: “At the moment it’s costing us over £12 million just to put things in a hole in the ground.

“When there are so many other pressures on services that are provided by local authorities, that seems like something that together as a whole community, we can do something about.”

If approved, the new kerbside collection service, to be known as Recycle More, will replace the present fortnightly non-recyclable waste collection and come into operation next autumn.

First mooted two years ago, the scheme is aimed at encouraging more recycling and cutting the amount of rubbish ending up in landfill.

A partnership spokesman said this week that if agreed, the new service would lead to improved recycling and would involve new materials including plastic pots, tubs and trays, small electrical items and household batteries.

Garden waste and clinical waste collections would remain unchanged and so would collections from flats, except that some extra materials would be collected.

More waste will be transferred from rubbish bins to recycling containers which will mean – if the scheme goes through - that every week residents with kerbside collections can recycle paper, cardboard, food waste, food and drink cans, aerosols, glass bottles and jars, tins, shoes and textiles as well as the new plastic and electrical items.

Extra facilities will be provided where needed – for instance families can apply for additional capacity or sacks to accommodate nappies.

“With so much recycling material being taken away every week, there will be far less to collect in rubbish bins and it would be wasteful to carry on collecting rubbish in the way we are at the moment,” said the partnership spokesman.

“So rubbish collections will reduce to once every three weeks.”

Research had shown that half the rubbish currently being binned could have been recycled.

According to the waste partnership, trials of the three-week collection sytem in overa thousand homes in Wiveliscombe and Taunton in 2014 resulted in 86 per cent of residents preferring the new service.

During the Wiveliscombe trials, recycling of dry materials increased by 28 per cent, food waste by 45 per cent and the volume of unrecycled refuse was reduced by 27 per cent.

The trials were described by partnership officials as “a significant success”.

During consultations, district councils were told that three-weekly collections were running successfully in 14 other UK areas. Another had moved to monthly collections and others were planning to do so.

To avoid confusion over new collection days, the partnership plans to introduce an app to provide mobile phone users with reminders.

“Before we launch the service we will hold roadshows in all areas to answer householders’ concerns.

“There will also be an information pack and a collections calendar.”