Fed-up pair set up own bin collections

Luke and Stacie Holdsworth came up with the idea of extra bin collections after becoming fed up with overflowing bins when the council scrapped the weekly pick-ups two years ago. The couple, who have two young children, were sick of the sight of rubbish spilling onto the pavements around their home in Roberttown and decided to take the matter into their own hands - or five refuse wagons to be exact.

Stacie, 21, said: “As a mum, I was worried about the hygiene risk of the packed bins, because we were getting maggots. With two children aged one and two, we go through a lot of nappies and I was worried that if the bins got too full, they council would refuse to take them anyway.”

Luke, 23, said the idea to alternate the collections with those of the council came as a bit of a eureka moment.

“We’ve been planning the venture for a few months now and we’re ready to start up next month, when a lot of rubbish is disposed of over the festive period,” he said.

“We figured that if there are 200,000 houses in Kirklees and just 10 per cent use us at £5 per month, we could make a profit of £70,000. We are asking people to pay up front and we are leasing the vehicles so there are no start up costs.”

Bin ‘N’ Gone, will also be creating jobs in the area.

Luke added: “To start off with we’ll need 10 staff and we’re going to take on people from the local area so this will benefit the community in a number of ways. There was a massive outcry when the council scrapped weekly collections so by doing this we are giving them their much-needed service back.”

A Kirklees spokeswoman said: “One of the main reasons for starting alternate week collections has been to boost recycling in the district and therefore reduce the amount of waste going to ever-decreasing landfill space at increasing cost. Reducing the waste sent to landfill saves local taxpayers money.”