NEW Forest residents can have their say on a new waste and recycling service, including plans for wheelie bins and alternate weekly collections.

The public consultation starts today (November 12).

This comes after New Forest District Council’s cabinet approved a draft strategy, which sets out how to increase recycling rates and recycle more items from home. This includes the proposal that a wheeled bin service and alternate weekly collection - where general waste is collected one week, recycling the next - is introduced.

Councillor Alison Hoare, NFDC’s portfolio holder for environment, said: “After a lot of research and project planning, including visiting other places to see what works well, we are now proposing what we have evaluated to be the best way to collect waste and recycling for the New Forest.

"To see how this new way of doing things will work, we are now asking the public to read our proposals and answer our resident engagement survey.

“We want to know what barriers residents think there are to introducing this new service so that we can shape the system to work well for the area. We understand that change can be difficult so we want to hear how we can get this right for our communities.

“And we want to hear from people who are keen to see recycling rates increase and have comments that are in support of change. Although the ‘headline’ is wheelie bins, there’s so much more to it. This could never be a simple yes or no to wheelie bins - the bins are just the how, but the why is the important part; our overall aim in this is to care for the environment.”

“Our role of taking away the rubbish, is just one part of the jigsaw. Everyone – individuals, households, manufacturers, retailers – needs to play their part in reducing, reusing, and recycling, and I urge anyone that cares about the environment to read what we are working on so they are then able to give us their informed comments, good and bad.”

To read the full draft waste strategy and comment on the proposals go to newforest.gov.uk. The consultation deadline is December 10.

Changes to the waste and recycling collection service are expected no earlier than 2022.