It’s out with the black sacks and in with the wheelie bins in Gravesham this summer.

Beginning on June 5, Gravesham council will be rolling out new bins to homes across the borough in a bid to keep streets cleaner, with all households that already have a recycling wheelie bin to receive one for waste by the end of that month.

While the day of the week that people need to put their bins out will not be changing, the council’s collection team will alternate between nonfood waste and recycling each week, rather than collect both weekly.

The council’s director of environment and operations, Nick Brown, hopes the roll-out of the new waste bins will be just as successful as the introduction of recycling bins back in 2014.

“Residents did a fantastic job last time round of getting on board and have been really positive about recycling,” he said.

“This will hopefully keep the streets cleaner while helping to continue to improve our recycling rates.”

By keeping everyone’s collection days the same, the council is confident of a smooth transition to the new arrangements, with households to receive a calendar to clearly identify which weeks their general waste and recycling will be collected.

People who don’t have a recycling wheelie bin will be able to request one for waste online if they want to wave goodbye to black sacks too.

Stuart Alford, the council’s assistant director of environment, said: “In 2014 we surveyed the whole borough and there are streets that the collection team can’t go down, or properties with flights of stairs that you can’t get the bins down.

“This will hopefully keep the streets cleaner while helping to continue to improve our recycling rates" Nick Brown

“People who have moved into the borough since then or think they would like a bin, there’s a form on our website that they can fill in and sign-up.

The new waste bin is slightly smaller than the recycling bins at 180 litres compared to 240, but the council say this is because the majority of household rubbish can be recycled and wants to further encourage people to do it.

Any extra rubbish that doesn’t fit in the new bin in any given week will need to be taken to the waste recycling centre at Pepperhill, and people will continue to have to take glass to the Pepperhill tip.

People who live in flats with communal waste bins will not be affected by any of these changes and food waste will still be collected every week.

Information will start being sent directly to households on Monday, March 6 and you can find out more ahead of the changes at gravesham.gov.uk/waste.