THE way the council collects waste and recycling is changing in 2011.

Currently the new brown bins – for glass, cans, cartons and plastics – are picked up in the same week as black bins across most of the borough.

But because these two bins take the longest to collect, Hertsmere Borough Council will be accumulating them in different weeks from this month onwards to balance it out.

This means your black bin and blue box will be collected together in Week One (running from Monday, January 10), and your green bin and brown bin or black box will be collected together in Week Two (which started Monday, January 3).

Councillor Jean Heywood, environment portfolio holder, said the new scheme is going “really well”.

“Our latest recycling rate is around 48 per cent, up from 40 per cent a few months ago and because we are recycling so much more in one week, we need to balance out our collection resources to keep the service running as efficiently as possible.”

A council spokeswoman added the scheduled collection this week was pushed back a day due to the bank holiday.

However, the new collection weeks will continue as normal after Friday.

“On your next scheduled collection day during the week beginning January 17, please put out your green bin and brown bin/black box, and during the week beginning January 24, put out your black bin and blue box.”

A 2011 collection calendar was included in a recycling leaflet which was delivered to all residents with Hertsmere News.