English city scraps curbside collections

BRIGHTON, England, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Residential curbside garbage collection in one English town is being jettisoned for communal bins, officials said.

The Times of London reported Friday that the Brighton & Hove City Council will begin installing communal trash bins in 500 streets next week. The city will continue to collect recycling boxes from outside homes.

The newspaper said the system will leave 27,000 families without weekly trash collections. The program is being watched by other local governments considering similar programs.

"I wonder if we will eventually see the end of the doorstep rubbish collections. People don't realize how much they value the service until it has gone. They have got used to putting the bin on the doorstep and having it removed every week," said Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection.

The Times reported that the new communal bins are being introduced mostly in areas where there are large numbers of flats or houses with limited of space for wheelie bins.