Residents have given their initial verdicts on recommendations to change bin collections to encourage more recycling in Stockton.

A Stockton Council committee has been looking at how to improve waste collections in a town which ranks among the lowest for recycling across the country – a 25% recycling rate in 2022-3, the lowest in the Tees Valley. It currently collects traditional bins weekly and dry recycling fortnightly, with a fortnightly seasonal garden waste collection.

Now the authority’s place select committee has recommended to reverse the two, to collect non-recycled rubbish every two weeks, and dry recycling every week along with a weekly food waste collection , which will become compulsory under a new law in 2026. Councillors found this option “resulted in the lowest costs and the highest overall rate of recycling”, and suggest a review of green waste collections.

Residents have given varying responses to the idea. In Hartburn, admin worker and mum-of-two Misha Hawes, 34, said: “It might encourage more people to recycle. We do recycle but I think with a lot of stuff now you’re umming and aahing about, ‘does it go in the recycling?’ “If it’s done weekly might recycle instead of shoving it in the bin. It might not be a bad thing.”

She suggested the system of recycling in Stockton – currently with a blue box for glass and batteries and white sacks for plastic, cardboard, cans and paper – could be improved: “Maybe if it introduced a better system for recycling and made it clearer, more people might start using it. I don’t think it’s clear enough.

“I don’t think it’s been particularly updated. Maybe if more people were made aware of what went where, people would use it more.”

Home worker Mark Jasiewicz, 48, said of the proposals: “That’s actually the right way around for our household. It would be ideal.”

He said he only filled his traditional bin with one pedal bin’s worth of rubbish each week: “Recycling-wise we end up with it almost overflowing. We recycle everything, it’s choc-a-block.”

Caterer and milliner Deborah Dawson, 49, said existing arrangements were “a mess” where boxes and sacks had been stolen from doorsteps. She said: “Areas like Newcastle have got a blue bin and a brown bin. Providing bins like that could encourage people to recycle more.

“It’s a lot harder to steal a large bin. I think if they did have the means to provide a proper method of recycling, a substantial way to do that, it would be brilliant.

“I lived in Germany in 1992, 1993, and the recycling system out there was fantastic, everything was clean and crisp. They didn’t take your bin away if there was stuff in there that shouldn’t be. People had a bin just for nappies and cigarette ash. We are well behind.”

In Eaglescliffe, retired John Horney, 79, said: “I think it’s trying to cut down and you’re getting less service. They seem to be cutting down on everything.

“It might work if people stick to it. I must admit there’s only two of us, we don’t have that much rubbish to put in the bin. We’re lucky if we get one bag in the ordinary bin in a week. I think it’s a good thing if it’s done properly, if people do recycle properly.”

Ian Scott, 72, added: “We generally have full bins by the end of the week so if they straight replacing the waste bin collection to two weeks it’ll be overflowing. We’re trying to recycle as much as possible, we split everything up.

“I try to compost as much as I can. I don’t think there’s very much else we can do.”

Another Eaglescliffe resident said: “To be honest it’s just the two of us so the bin is generally not very full anyway. But the recycling bin gets a bit full.”

He said he was not keen on the food waste collection and wanted to know more: “Where do you keep it, or what do you do with it?”

A neighbour added: “I prefer the waste every week to be honest. I don’t like things hanging around really.

“I like it how it is now. Certainly the bins I’d prefer weekly, especially in the summer.”

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Former Stockton councillor Luke Frost argued it could make the borough “more of an eyesore than it already is”. He said: “Changes to refuse and recycling in Stockton will not bring about the aims set out by Stockton Council.

“I spent a lot of time as councillor for Mandale and Victoria talking about the refuse, recycling and flytipping in the ward and, though successful with a bin roll-out, it’s evident that the council and the leadership are bowing to financial pressure and not that of making our borough cleaner.

"When we have black bag zones in the borough that are creating huge issues for residents, not only visually but with homes infested with mice and rats, this is the wrong call.”