By 2027, every household in Wiltshire will be provided with five different bins as part of an ambitious plan to improve waste separation and recycling rates. Wiltshire Council’s Environment Select Committee announced this significant change on September 9, aimed at making the recycling process more efficient and reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.
The new system will separate paper and cardboard from plastic bottles and cans, which are currently collected together as mixed recycling in blue-lid bins. In addition, food waste and soft plastics will also be collected alongside regular recycling. To facilitate this, the council will supply residents with plastic bags specifically for soft plastics. The remaining household waste will continue to be collected in black bins on a fortnightly basis.
Each household will ultimately have:
- A blue bin for paper and card
- A red bin for plastics, cartons, and metals (trial starting in October for 600 Chippenham residents)
- A bin or collection system for food waste
- A collection for soft plastics
- A black bin for residual waste
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This deeper level of sorting places greater responsibility on residents rather than relying on waste management facilities to separate materials after collection. The trial of red-lidded bins will begin shortly, with full implementation expected as contracts with private waste collection providers expire in 2027.
Currently, 43% of Wiltshire’s residual waste—essentially the rubbish not recycled—is food waste. In 2024/25, local households generated nearly 39,000 tonnes of food waste, with estimates suggesting that about 21,000 tonnes could be diverted for composting or recycling.
While the cost of rolling out this system, including collection and processing, will run into millions annually, councillor Paul Sample, cabinet member for environment, climate and waste, explained it would be less costly than facing fines for landfill use. “This is something we need to deal with as rapidly as we can,” Cllr Sample said.
Contracts with five of the seven private waste providers servicing Wiltshire expire in 2027. These contracts are valued at £55 million per year and currently cost taxpayers £45 million annually. Some income is recovered through charges for optional green waste and bulky waste collection services and by selling recyclable materials like glass, tin, and paper.
In 2024/25, sale of recyclables generated £3.6 million for the council, helping to offset waste management costs, though not fully covering them. The award-winning “Let’s Sort It” campaign encourages greater resident participation and improved quality of recycling materials. Enhancing recycling not only benefits the environment but also can increase income to support waste management expenses.
Optional services such as garden waste and bulky item collections raised £6.2 million last year, with fees ringfenced exclusively for these services’ operational costs. However, these fees do not cover expenses related to composting sites or bulky waste disposal.
Recognizing the complexity of waste management, the committee has also agreed to establish a task group focused specifically on waste collection methods and contract negotiations—underscoring Wiltshire’s commitment to sustainable, efficient waste reduction.