East Suffolk defends move to spend £350k to change bin lids.

East Suffolk Council has defended its decision to spend £350,000 on garbage lids as the most “efficient route”.

On Tuesday evening, Councillor Sally Noble, East Suffolk Council’s environmental lead, sought cabinet approval to spend the money on changing garden bin lids from green to brown.

The council was concerned that the extra wheelie bin for paper and card, which is being introduced as part of new government standards, might cause confusion with its current green garden bins.

Sally Noble, of East Suffolk Council(Image: Sally Noble)

Mrs Noble stated, “All Suffolk councils are expected, and have agreed, to standardise rubbish and recycling bin colours throughout Suffolk as part of the government’s push for more participation.

“We warned early on that the garden waste containers, along with the new green-lidded card and paper receptacle, could cause confusion.

It’s critical that we address this cost as effectively as possible, and changing lids alone is significantly less expensive.” The new lids are projected to cost £300,000, with an additional £50,000 for distribution and fitting.

Mrs Noble, on the other hand, estimated that replacing and dispersing all of the dumpsters would cost more than £1 million.

However, opposing councillors questioned the ideas. Councillor Peter Byatt, who called them a “complete waste of money,” recommended purchasing brown stickers instead to place on top of the green lids to avoid confusion.

Councillor Mark Jepson stated that visible notices on wheelie bins may easily address confusion while also providing assistance to people and saving the council money.

Mrs Noble defended her suggestions, claiming that any other approach could result in garbage being placed in the wrong bins, polluting collections.

Councillor Tim Wilson remarked, “Even the smallest amount of failure rate on that plan creates huge eddies of instability thereafter.”

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