Overfilled bins with lids which are unable to close may no longer be emptied by Belfast City Council.
The new zero-tolerance policy, which would see overfilled bins marked with a red tag and not emptied, was discussed at a meeting of the people and communities committee on Tuesday.
If ratified at next month’s full council meeting, it would come into effect at the end of June.
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Prior to this, an ‘amber tagging’ system from May 12 would see overfilled bin owners issued with a warning, but still have their bins emptied.
An outline plan currently indicates that red tags would be applied to bins from June 23.
Between August and September last year, a council survey showed that almost one-in-ten bin lids were raised during collections.
The current waste collection policy states that if bins are not fully closed and could cause a health and safety problem, they can be rejected for collection.
However, council noted that this policy is currently operated in “a pragmatic way” which sees crews expected to empty bins if they were “open slightly”.
Health and safety concerns were raised as the reason behind the new policy update, with a report stating that crews had been highlighting the issue “for some time”.
As part of the new policy, black bins which are fitted with large liners would also be refused.
Council noted a “year-on-year” increase in the use of bin liners and it has been reported that these have “the potential to snag on equipment and bin lifters”.
The report said that an operative had recently been injured after a black bin which had been fitted with a liner “detached from the lifting clamp”, with an investigation concluding that the liner “most likely contributed to the bin slipping out of the clamp”.
It also noted that following a refuse collection fatality in Coventry in 2023, sensors were being added to its fleet.
It said that “the practice of emptying bins with open lids runs contrary” to manufacturers’ procedures and that new vehicles would have sensors attached that would prevent this.
The policy is set to be brought before the full council meeting on May 1.
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