HOUSEHOLDS in the Wellington and Wiveliscombe areas will have their bins emptied just once every three weeks from 2017.

A plan has been agreed which will see collections of non-recyclable waste reduced from once a fortnight.

At the same time weekly collections of waste for recycling will be expanded to include materials like plastic yoghurt pots and batteries.

It is expected it will take several years for the changes to come into force across the whole county.

Parts of the county will see the change come into force as early as autumn 2017.

The Waste Partnership is in charge of rubbish collection and recycling services for all six local authorities in Somerset.

At present, more than £12million is spent each year on landfill services.

Using a range of new vehicles to suit Somerset’s varied conditions and take all materials at one time, including the growing ‘internet avalanche’ of cardboard, Recycle More will collect the light but bulky plastic food packaging in a tough new base-weighted store-flat bag.

Recycle More is expected to recycle almost 13,000 extra tonnes of materials now being landfilled each year, cut rubbish levels significantly, and save, after initial costs, £1.7 million a year.

The waste partnership says that trials with 5,000 Somerset families of all sizes and situations over several months showed that services like Recycle More create a ‘virtuous circle’, with the newly-added items prompting more recycling of all materials, from food to glass and card.