South Holland District Council’s cabinet is set to make decision on whether to ditch bags for bins

The long-running debate over bags and wheelie bins could finally be settled tonight (Thursday, June 26).

Members of South Holland District Council’s cabinet are going to be making a decision this evening on whether to ditch the traditional green and black bin bags in favour of the wheelie bins.

New waste portfolio holder, Coun Jim Astill, has explained to this website that the changes on how our refuse system operates are being driven by the new Environment Act - which is bring about the mandatory introduction of a weekly food waste collection from March 2026 along with requirements to collect paper and card separately.

But he also added that the current system, which allows people to put out unlimited amounts of waste, is adding extra pressure on the council’s finances. The service budget has overspent by £215,000 in the last financial year and there have been 150 cases in a three month period in the last year when a second collection run was needed as a lorry had reached its maximum weight.

South Holland also has some of the worst recycling rates compared with other authorities. During a three month period, up to 22% of waste put in green bags was contaminated by other items - which is a long way off the 14% target.

Last year, the council conducted a survey which asked a number of questions, including if residents wanted to keep the current regime or move onto wheelie bins. This resulted in a narrow victory for bags when 51% of the 8,576 respondents voted in favour of keeping them.

But it was also revealed that more than 70% of people who responded wanted to recycle more.

Three options will be going before cabinet tonight but members have been recommended to go for ‘option b’ — which would see residents provided with 240-litre bins.

Option a would see the introduction of 180-litre bins.

The report also states that the third option was “discounted due to the requirement to run additional fleet to enable a full round sack collection to continue. It is also considered that asking households to retain dry mixed recycling for four weeks in sacks is unlikely to improve recycling rates’.

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