Liverpool residents could be given more help to recycle over the next six months with a series of proposed new measures.

Despite the city being on target to recycle a record 33% of its waste in 2016/17, Liverpool City Council is looking to improve on Merseyside Waste Recycling Authority (MWRA) figures showing that 21,000 tonnes of recyclable goods are needlessly going to landfill each year.

During a meeting this Friday (17 February), council cabinet members will consider recommendations to encourage residents to put more items in recycling bins rather that their purple bin or black sacks.

Larger 90-litre reusable sacks could replace 55-litre recycling boxes for 28,000 homes in the city following a successful pilot in County ward, which saw the amount collected rise by 20%.

Plus the four-foot alleyways serving 28,000 terraced homes will be repaired and upgraded and residents will be given better capacity to store and present their recycling to avoid attracting vermin.

The local authority also plans to double the number of mobile teams tackling flytipping from four to two, and other measures could include an expansion of weekly recycling services to cover all 5,500 city centre apartment blocks, a pilot of weekly recycling in some terraced property areas, and a recycling education programme in schools.

Councillor Steve Munby, cabinet member for neighbourhoods, says: “What we are going to be doing over the next year is increasing our recycling collections where we think it will make a difference, educating people about which bin to use, improving our response to flytipping and taking action against those that dump in our city.

“We know there are still large numbers of residents that are putting recyclable items in their purple bin or are wrongly putting plastic bags in their blue bins, so we need to do more to clearly explain the do’s and don’ts.

“I get many complaints from residents living in terraced properties about the condition of their alleyways which is why we are launching a major improvement drive in the spring which will see us replacing paving and carrying out other environmental improvements, as well as giving them better facilities to present their rubbish.”

The city council is also looking at introducing a kitchen waste collection service for left-over food by creating a local treatment facility that could also generate electricity and gas.

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