 Blue bin bags are being delivered
We've started delivering this year's blue bin bags to households in the borough. You can check when your blue bags will arrive on our website.
Most households will be receiving your final roll of 20 blue bags to cover the period from April until mid August, when your waste collections will change to a new service.
From mid August, we will collect your rubbish from a 180-litre black wheeled bin every two weeks. Recycling will also be collected fortnightly, on the other weeks, from green bags. Food waste will still be emptied weekly from food bins.
Some households are not changing
Some households will not be moving to the new service, and their rubbish and recycling collections will continue to be weekly. They include:
- Flats with communal bin stores – can use any plastic bags, so won’t get any blue bags
- Properties with no space at all for wheeled bins – will get 54 blue bags delivered
- Properties on narrow lanes which regular waste collection vehicles cannot get to – will get 54 blue bags delivered
Please note the 54 blue bags are to cover a full year from April at roughly one bag per week.
 Watch out for a leaflet coming with your blue bags
We’ll be sending a leaflet to households along with a roll of either 20 or 54 blue rubbish bags. It explains whether your collections are changing (along with 20 bags) or staying the same (along with 54 bags).
The leaflet coming with 20 bags gives essential information about the changes and provide helpful tips on how to get ready and to recycle more. You can also visit our website to learn more:
 Helping everyone get ready
Our new waste engagement team can’t wait to say hello! They’ll be attending their first public events around the borough soon, and later this spring they’ll be knocking on doors for a friendly chat to help you recycle all you can, if you aren’t already.
Don’t worry if you’re not in, as they’ll also be dropping off leaflets with lots of useful advice about how to make the best use of our waste collection services.
We’ll be sharing more updates about the team in future editions of this newsletter, and we’re looking forward to introducing them soon!
 Roses are red, violets are blue
It's the most romantic day of the year!
On this Valentine's Day, we hope you'd show your affection to the environment while saying 'I love you'. Here are a few reminders:
Flower bouquets
- If you've got a flower bouquet wrapped in plastic cellophane, you can recycle the wrapping with other plastic bags at most supermarkets.
- Once your flowers are past their best, put them in your brown bin or sack if you're using our garden waste collection service.
- Alternatively, recycle them at re3 recycling centre during your next visit, or add them to your compost heap if you have one.
Cards and gifts
- Wrapping paper, cardboard boxes and cards can be recycled in your green bag, if there is no glitter or foil.
- Foil wrappers can be recycled in your green bag too. Do a scrunch test to check whether the shiny wrapper is aluminium foil or plastic film - scrunch them in your hand, if it remains scrunched in a ball, it is recyclable foil.
Dinner for two
- To reduce the amount of food waste, you can use the online food portion calculator to find the perfect portion sizes for your Valentine's meal.
- Remember - you can freeze your leftovers and enjoy them later. A wide range of food is 'freezable', like rice, eggs, cheese, potatoes and more. Read the article on Love Food Hate Waste website to learn about the seven food you never knew you could freeze.
 Free bird box making workshop for children
Spencers Wood Repair Café is offering free bird box making workshops for children in the borough.
To help our younger generation understand the importance of reducing waste, the repair café plans to work with local schools and youth groups to run the workshops for ages 11 to 13.
Participants will learn how to make a bird box using unwanted or off-cut wood that would otherwise be sent to landfill or burnt. After the workshop, they can take the bird box home or put it in a community area to monitor the birds' activities.
Spencers Wood Repair Café has recently been awarded funding from the National Lottery Grant, so they are now able to run free workshops for the local community in addition to their repair services.
Schools and youth groups are encouraged to email Billie, the repair café organiser, if you are interested in having the bird box workshops for your pupils or members.
 Next repair café session
The next Spencers Wood Repair Cafe will be held this Sunday 18 February, from 10am to 1pm, at Lambs Lane Primary School (RG7 1YG).
Their volunteers will help fix your broken or faulty household items for free, such as gardening tools, computers, clothes, toys and more.
If you have anything electrical to repair, they now have the equipment to check the safety of electrical appliances repaired by them ('PAT test') too.
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