Wastesavers and Newport City Council are introducing two new bins to the communal recycling services offered to blocks of flats, to collect cardboard and food waste. These extra receptacles will go to the 250 blocks of flats that already have four bins for metals, plastics, glass and paper. The scheme was given the go ahead after a six-month trial where a few selected blocks of flats used all six bins.

Residents will also each receive a personal food waste caddy and a year’s supply of compostable bags; they will then be able to empty the caddy into the communal bin on the ground floor, which is collected weekly. Although a few flats dropped out of the food waste collection scheme during the six-month trial period, most feedback was positive.

Wastesavers began life as an environmental pressure group in 1986 and began collecting newspapers for recycling in the mid ’90s. Since then its operation has expanded to deliver the kerbside recycling services for around 60,000 homes and 5,000 flats in Newport.

The company is also delivering its service to blocks of flats that still lack communal recycling bins and have to use kerbside services. Over 100 blocks of flats will receive all six recycling bins over the next year.

Penny Williams of Wastesavers said: “We are aware that people living in flats are often limited for space and storage, and that they would find it difficult to each have a blue and green box. In order to help, we provide bespoke communal recycling bins to flat blocks which residents can use whenever they need to. We want to provide flats residents with the same opportunity to recycle as other households.”

The council hopes that the expanded recycling scheme will help them reach its 52 per cent recycling target by 2012/13.