Possible changes to bin services across Ashby and Leicestershire include collections every three weeks, free garden waste collections and new food waste bins.

And now is the time to have your say.

A county-wide public consultation has been launched, inviting residents in all of the districts and boroughs to have their say on a possible service shake-up of waste collections.

A number of options have been put forward by the Leicestershire Waste Partnership, made up of Leicestershire County Council and the borough and district councils, for consideration.

These include the possibility of rolling out free garden waste collections, recycling a greater number of materials, and starting food waste collections.

However, smaller general rubbish bins or lengthening the time between collections to every three weeks are also being considered in a bid to reduce residual waste.

Separating recycling into different boxes is also being looked. This could be a three box scheme, separating paper and card in box one, glass in box two, and plastic and cans in box three. Alternatively, paper and card would be stored in a box and plastic, glass and cans into a bin.

The waste partnership said: "The way we view 'waste' has changed. It is no longer something to just get rid of, but is potentially a valuable resource to be retained and reused or better still avoided altogether.

"Using the resources from waste can help to reduce the raw materials we need for producing new goods, which in turn has environmental, social and financial benefits."

Consultation documents indicate that option three is expected to be the most popular as 'it requires no change to the household but also provides additional services'. This would see current services stay as they are, with the addition of separate food waste collections, free garden waste collections and expanded recycling.

The two variations of option 5 are expected to score lowest in terms of public acceptability as this would see general waste collections negatively impacted.

Option 5a would include smaller 140 litre bins collected fortnightly, where as 5b would see 180 or 240 litre bins collected every three weeks.

Residents previously branded the suggestion of a three-weekly collection as 'ludicrous'.

One commentor said: "Well that's just daft. We make two weeks with our black bin, but three and we'd be collecting bags in the garage"

However, option 5a rated highest overall in the report's rating scheme, scoring full marks for carbon reduction, the amount of recycling expected, reducing general waste and the simplicity and flexibility of collection.

The consultation documents also outline a number of pledges from the partnership to county residents.

These include councils reviewing their own waste habits with the aim of reusing and recycling more; exploring greener fuels for their bin lorries to help reduce carbon emissions; working to meet the national target of 65% of all waste by 2035; and reducing waste sent to landfill to less than 5% by 2025, beating the national target of 10% by 2030.

The consultation will run until Monday, April 25. The full list of options can be found HERE.