Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council has commissioned Plastic Omnium to develop a series of colour coded wheeled bins for residents in 150 apartment blocks. The bins range from a capacity of 240 litres to 400 litres, each with a different colour lid to represent glass, paper and cans / tins.

Plastic Omnium has already provided Trafford MBC with 48,000 240-litre green bins for garden waste collections, enabling the council to recycle over 6,000 tonnes of green waste in 2005 / 2006.

The nature of the properties – communal waste areas with restricted access for residents and waste collectors, and limited room in the apartments themselves – means that practical difficulties prevent otherwise willing householders from recycling as much as they’d like to.

Dave Elliott, sales executive at Plastic Omnium, said: “We initially introduced the concept of colour-coded lids for people with limited sight. Feedback indicated that the fully-sighted also found that they helped them recycle more, so we thought it made sense to roll the idea out to a wider audience.”

Paul Harvey from Trafford MBC added: “It was important to identify ways of engaging the householders in flats and apartments. In Trafford, apartments and flats account for 17% of housing stock. We wanted to make sure people in those properties had an equal chance to contribute to our recycling efforts.”