Borough in Staffordshire, England, buys oversized bin lorries

The Telegraph reports that certain recycling vehicles purchased by the borough council of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England, were too wide to travel down certain streets, which prevented residents from having recyclables collected for more than a week.

The weekly collection program was launched 4 July 2016. The fuel-efficient lorries, which cost £2.4 million total, contained separate compartments to sort residents’ recyclables at the kerbside.

The council said this new service was more environmentally friendly than the previous biweekly collection program and would save taxpayers £500,000 a year. 

However, the larger vehicles could not access roughly two-dozen streets that featured tight bends and parked cars. Additionally, crews were unable to collect the recycling in more than 40 other streets because they ran out of time. As a result, recyclables were not collected until Tuesday, July 19, by the smaller vehicle.