WHEELIE bins are set to start arriving outside homes in East Cambridgeshire from September 2, it was confirmed this week.

The roll out of thousands of the blue and green bins, made possible because of a £5million Government grant, will take up to 10 weeks to complete.

Over the last few months, councillors and officers at the District Council have been busy purchasing wheeled bins and collection vehicles, developing a waste policy and surveying homes to see which properties are suitable for the new service.

Councillor Kevin Ellis, chairman of the waste and environment sub-committee at East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “The new service will make collecting recycling throughout East Cambridgeshire easier, more efficient and simpler for residents with two bins to put their recycling, and food and garden waste into.”

Once the new service is introduced, officials expect recycling rates in East Cambridgeshire to improve significantly from as low as 34 per cent, the lowest in the county, to up to 50 per cent of the district’s waste by 2015.

The wheelie bins will mean the current brown sack and black box collection system will be replaced.

The service will operate on an alternate week basis where residents will be asked to put one wheeled bin out for collection one week followed by their other bin the following week. This is addition to the weekly black sack waste collections.

Properties judged unable to accept wheeled bin services because of space or access issues will be offered an alternative service based on clear sacks for recycling and continuation of the existing brown sack service for food and garden waste.