BINgo! Win £1,000 for recycling your scraps
Cash prizes of £1,000 could be won by residents just for putting out their food waste bins in a new bingo-style game being launched by council bosses.
The BINgo game is aimed at increasing the number of families recycling across Sandwell. From September 29, anyone who puts their brown food waste caddy out on their usual collection day will have it returned with a BINgo number attached. Over the next 12 weeks recyclers will get a new number each week to mark off on their cards, which are being issued to each household this week.
The game will come to an end the week before Christmas.
Anyone who marks off a full line of five numbers going across their card is in with a chance of winning a prize.
The first 20 Sandwell residents to call the claim line and submit a fully-completed BINgo card will each win £1,000.
The first 25 line winners will each get a 12-month gym membership for Sandwell Leisure Centres, and the following 500 line winners will get a roll of compostable food waste liners.
It comes after Stafford Borough Council launched a similar scheme called doorstep challenge, which picks out residents at random. If no recyclable products are in their green refuse bin they win £60.
Councillor Steve Eling, deputy leader of Sandwell Council, said: "We need to get more people to recycle and we've taken the view that it is better to offer an incentive rather than be punitive on residents who don't separate their waste and recycle.
"As well as being an incentive to recycle more it's also a bit of fun for our residents and we hope it captures their imagination.
"BINgo will run for 12 weeks so we hope it encourages a long-term habit among households to separate and recycle food waste."
The council claims that, if the amount of waste sent to landfill is reduced, the authority will avoid millions of pound in taxes and charges.
But money being spent on the scheme, being paid for out of a £1.06 million Government grant to encourage recycling, has been criticised by some.
Sandwell Council's sole UKIP member, Councillor Philip Garrett, said: "I don't have any problem with schemes supporting recycling, but this is a lot of money."
For more information visit www.sandwell.gov.uk/bingo
