Kerbside recycling bags are on the way

More than two million specially designed bags have been produced for islanders to use when the new kerbside recycling collections are introduced in less than a month. A supply of the bags, made from recycled plastic, will be delivered to every household from next week. They will be used for mixed recycling, which will be picked up by along with the regular parish black bag collections.

Clear bags are being provided for mixed paper and cardboard, and blue bags for mixed tins, cans, plastic containers and drinks cartons.  The parish bin men will collect clear bags one week, and blue ones the next.

Full instructions on how to use the new service are also being delivered to households from next week. 

Public Services Recycling Officer, Tina Norman-Ross, said the delivery of the bags and information packs will signal to islanders how close the new service is. 

‘We’re getting very excited about the launch, and hopefully islanders will be too,’ she said.

‘Kerbside collections will make recycling a great deal easier and more convenient.  We hope that will help people who currently visit the bring banks to recycle a bit more than they do now, and anyone who up until now have not started recycling will have that extra encouragement now.’

Public Services will be collecting information through the first two years of the new service, which is being launched as an interim scheme.  It will also run trials of glass collection in some areas, and it hopes to include this in the final scheme.

‘A lot of this is about gathering information to make sure whatever we decide on for the final scheme is really the optimum solution for Guernsey.  So once the new service is up and running we will be looking to islanders for their views on how it is going, and whether it can be improved,’ said Mrs Norman-Ross. 

The bags have been printed at a specialist facility, Gelpack, in Hereford and feature clear guidance on what types of recyclables will be collected in each colour bag.

The bags themselves will also be recycled once used. Contractor Mayside, who will be sorting the contents of the bags, will also send the bags to be recycled – provided they are clean.