IN A bid to increase recycling and make life easier for residents, new green wheelie bins are being introduced across the borough.
A total of £4million is included in the Clean Green Croydon capital budget, which is due to be agreed at the council tax meeting of the full council on Monday.
Councillor Stuart Collins, the cabinet member for Clean Green Croydon, said the majority of the new investment would go on to eventually provide 125,000 homes with the new large wheelie bins, which residents will be able to use for recycling glass, plastics, cans, paper and cardboard.
At present, residents are provided with separate recycling boxes; one for glass, plastic and cans, and one for paper and cardboard, with collections being made in alternating weeks.
Cllr Collins said that under the new system, which will start to be rolled out this year, all recyclable material will be collected in one go from one bin, streamlining the existing arrangements.
Food waste will continue to be collected separately every week.
Flats will be excluded from the project, and Cllr Collins said discussions would also be held with residents who did not have the space at their homes to cope with a second wheelie bin.
All homes are already provided with one bin for general rubbish.
Cllr Collins said: "At present, people have to think every week about what to put out and what box to use, and in some areas this is not working too well.
"There is also often a problem with boxes going missing and mess from rubbish being blown about when lids come off. That will not happen with the large wheelie bins and I hope it will mean the streets will be a lot cleaner."
He said the new system would be a lot easier for people to understand, and was hopeful that it would encourage people who may have problems with recycling to do more, reducing the amount of rubbish going to costly landfill sites.
Cllr Collins was asked by Conservative councillor Donald Speakman, at Tuesday's council tax cabinet meeting, whether the new bins would contain microchips to check the amount of rubbish which was being recycled by residents.
He replied with a quip, saying: "The only chips you will find in our bins will be in the food waste boxes."
