South Holland residents may move to wheelie bins as legislation forces fresh look at waste collections

The way a district’s residents get rid of their waste could be set to change — with a switch to wheelie bins back up for debate.

South Holland District Council’s cabinet is going to be making a decision later this month on whether to scrap our weekly black and green bin bag collections and opt for wheelie bins due to new legislation which has come into force.

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.

However, South Holland’s recycling rates are lower than other nearby authorities — and the Environment Act is forcing councils to make a number of changes, such as the mandatory introduction of a weekly food waste collection from March 2026 along with requirements to collect paper and card separately.

This act also includes the need to capture as much recycling as possible in order to demonstrate the council has an ‘effective and efficient’ waste service — and this is not achieved with the current arrangements, which allow residents to put out an unlimited number of bags.

On top of this, the Government has also placed targets to reduce the amount of emissions by 2028, which also has an impact on the council’s waste services as our black bin bags are incinerated.

Coun Jim Astill, the new portfolio holder for environmental services, said that more than 70% of people who responded to the previous survey had also expressed a desire to recycle more.

He said: "There is a clear demonstration in the consultation responses that residents want to recycle more."

"The Environment Act is driving this and on the back of that the changes proposed this will drive us towards delivering a more effective and efficient waste service."

Following the consultation, officers had put together a fully costed report of the different options available to the authority - which was due to be presented to a full council meeting earlier this year but this was postponed due to the major changes proposed as part of the pending Local Government Reform.

See also: Bin collections set to change for all homes in South Kesteven

Lincolnshire County Council along with the seven district authorities - many of which run wheelie bin collections - will be disbanded to form new unitary authorities. The northern Lincolnshire councils are also included within these proposals for change.

Members of the South Holland cabinet are due to be making a decision at a special meeting, which is earmarked for June 26, and a report on the options available is expected to be published later this week.

The full council meeting on July 16 will decide on whether to alter the authority’s capital programme in order to fund any changes.

What do you think? Is it time for South Holland to use wheelie bins? Email news@lincsonline.co.uk or post your thoughts in the comments below…