The delivery of new, larger garden waste bins to homes in Suffolk Coastal will begin on Tuesday.

The council introduced paid-for garden waste collections in May this year and one of the benefits of joining the scheme is that subscribers can get a free upgrade - receiving a larger (240 litre) green bin for their garden waste.

The new bins come with the added attraction of being fitted with embedded, hi tech tags which can - be “read” by a special device that the bin lorry crews will have, to ensure the right bins are emptied.

“We have had a very good response to the Garden Waste Scheme, with about 33,500 households (or about 57% of homes) signing up for the paid-for service,” explained Carol Poulter, Suffolk Coastal’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for the Green Environment.

“Of these, 80% have opted to get the larger green bins, so delivering all the new bins is a huge logistical exercise. We will then return at a later date to pick up any unwanted old brown bins, although people are welcome to keep them.”

It is expected to take about a month to get round to all the homes that have currently opted in to receive a new green bin.

The rollout will be done area by area, starting in the Felixstowe area and working northwards through the district.

As well as the embedded security tags, the bins will have an address/bar code sticker fixed to them. The address/barcode sticker is just temporary and will eventually come off in the weather - its purpose is purely to make delivering the bins to the correct address easier.