7 May 2010

Free council wheelie bins - but not for houses on hills

6:22 am on 7 May 2010

Wellington City Council is to give its residents wheelie bins for recycling - but a fifth of households will miss out because the houses are on steep hills.

About 45,000 households will receive a 140-litre wheelie bin for recycling paper, metal and plastics.

The current green recycling bins will be kept and used for glass only.

The 12,000 homes that do not get wheelie bins will be given 40 clear plastic bags, which hold 90 litres, for the first year of the project.

City councillor Celia Wade-Brown says the council needs to work out which streets are too steep for wheelie bins, so the initiative will be tried first in Tawa where there is both hilly and flat land.