If Brighton and Hove Council is serious about wanting to raise the recycling rate, it should think about providing recycling wheelie bins, as do many other authorities, including our neighbouring authority in West Sussex.

There are several problems with the present black boxes. They are inadequate for households which recycle carefully. The boxes are overflowing well before the fortnightly collection. This results in the boxes being self-defeating. Once they are out on the pavement, a lot of the contents end up being redistributed around the street by any passing gust of wind.

The lids, which don’t clip on, are useless when the boxes are over-full, and the nets won’t stretch over if there is too much in the box.

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Any breeze results in bags, cardboard and plastic packaging decorating the local neighbourhood. This is then left to the hardworking street cleaner to pick up, and it’s collected as rubbish, instead of being recycled.

The amount of litter in residential areas has increased dramatically, not because people are careless but because of recycling.

Brighton and Hove probably has a higher rate of recycling than is being recorded – it’s just that a lot of it ends up on the street.

The boxes are difficult to lift when full of glass and wet newspaper. They are heavy and dirty. I find it awkward, so it must be hard work for elderly or disabled residents to manoeuvre these boxes to the pavement.

If recycling collections don’t happen (and ours is extremely unreliable), the likelihood of the lighter contents going astray increases every day. Add to that the bags of recycling that mount up next to the boxes, as there is nowhere else for it to go.

A large recycling wheelie bin would solve these problems. The lid would prevent wind damage, and the wheels would make it a lot easier to put out for collection.

The present system is clearly not working, so come on, Brighton and Hove. If you really want us to recycle more, then give us decent resources to do so.

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