If you live in Cheshire East then changes are on the way soon to how your waste is collected.

These changes include the introduction of weekly food waste collections and a move to three-weekly black bin collections.

I went along to the waste transfer station in Middlewich to see how the council deals with the rubbish we produce, why it is important to put your waste in the correct bin and to find out why the changes are necessary.

Cheshire East carries out a whopping 12.5 million bin collections every year – and contrary to public opinion, the waste doesn't go to landfill.

"At the moment, we're recycling about 50 per cent of that," said Cllr David Jefferay, the portfolio holder for environment, sustainability and waste management.

"In comparison to the England average, which is about 43 per cent, we're actually doing ok."

But the government is raising the target and by 2035 that figure has to be 65 per cent – and that means changes.

"From autumn, the simpler recycling comes in, which means we've got to collect the food waste weekly due to legislation, so that's a significant change," said Cllr Jefferay.

The council has no choice in this – the legislation was introduced by the former Conservative government.

It's an additional expense for the cash-strapped council, as the government contribution doesn't cover the total cost – which includes 182,000 food caddies, a new fleet of electric vehicles and the need to recruit 13 extra drivers and 27 loaders.

The kerbside caddy roll-out, or 140-litre wheelie bins for blocks of flats, started this week and will be done in phases.

Residents are asked not to start using their caddies yet because collections aren't expected to start until autumn.

But once weekly food waste collections are up and running, black bins containing household waste, will only be collected every three weeks.

This has met with an angry backlash from some residents across the borough.

Cllr Jefferay said: "The experience in other councils is that when you get the weekly food waste collections, the reduction in residual waste is about 20 per cent… so it shouldn't inconvenience people too much going to three-weekly.

"You've got 20 per cent less in there already, because a lot of our waste is food."

He added: "If you have got a big family or additional medical needs, then we can provide alternative means or an extra black bin. That may involve a delivery charge for the additional bin."

At present, households who pay for a garden waste bin subscription can dispose of their food waste by putting it in the garden bin and it all goes to the council's state-of-the-art composting plant at Leighton in Crewe.

People will still be able to do that if they wish in the future, but it is important to note that food mixed in with the garden waste will only be collected fortnightly, as at present.

With regard to weekly food collections and the change to three-weekly black bins, more information will be provided when the kerbside caddies are dropped off.

The council says its website will be updated with residents' exact collection start dates by mid-September.

People will then also be able to check if there is any change to their collection day, as routes and schedules are being updated to incorporate the new food waste service.

Silver/grey bin waste will continue to be collected every two weeks.

With our waste collections changing in the very near future, how will this impact the waste transfer station at Middlewich and what exactly do they do there anyway?

At its simplest, the environmental hub on Cledford Lane is where the bin lorries 'dump' their waste in huge units and it is then bulked and picked up by private contractors.

In the case of household waste, which is by far the most expensive to deal with, that is used to produce energy.

The council has all but eliminated sending any to landfill.

But councils across the country are now having to find an alternative to that too because of the proposed extension of the carbon emissions trading scheme from waste-to-energy plants in 2028 – essentially another tax.

Cllr Jefferay said: "Figures being bandied around are about £5 million a year through that emission tax."

He added: "It's kind of understandable from the whole net zero targets sort of thing – at the end of the day, you are still burning things…

"But at cabinet, we're looking for a new waste strategy… so we're using the latest kind of innovative ways of doing it."

He said textiles are a particularly big problem because they go for waste for energy at the moment.

In the case of recyclables – those items you put in your grey/silver bin – they are dropped off by the bin lorries in a different large unit on the site, before being collected by a private contractor and sorted at a multi-recycling facility.

A quick glance around the loads discarded while I was there, showed some people are happy to throw anything in the grey bin – there were examples of black bags containing nappies, a duvet cover, things which should have been in the black bin or even taken to the tip.

And this comes at a huge cost to us, as council taxpayers.

"In April, 640 tonnes of waste had wrongly been put into silver recycling bins, and that cost the council £73,500," said Cllr Jefferay. "Just for one month."

The food and garden waste doesn't go to Middlewich – that goes to the composting plant at Leighton.

But the new weekly food collection service does have implications for Middlewich.

In May planning permission was granted for an 84-space car park on vacant hardstanding between Cledford Lane and Faulkner Drive to accommodate new staff.

A new single-storey security lodge is also proposed, and a bin store is to be relocated.

The Middlewich hub is also the depot for all the vehicles.

There's a maintenance garage where mechanics work on not just the bin lorries but the street cleansing vehicles, lawn mowers – and soon the new food recycling electric fleet.

"They have to work really quickly because if a vehicle comes in for repair one day, it's needed the next morning for the bin collection round," said Cllr Jefferay.

The Middlewich hub is also the centre for tracking any problems with collections.

Drivers have an online connection to the centre and 'tick off' each street as it is completed.

If bins cannot be collected because a street is inaccessible because of parked cars, roadworks, or snow, for example, that is relayed straight back to the Middlewich centre, as are cases of bin contamination.

Every day in the UK there's at least four fires in bin lorries because of wrongly discarded waste – and that puts the crews and sometimes residents at risk of serious injury or even worse.

Last year one Cheshire East crew had to drive a burning vehicle away from a block of flats and across Macclesfield to a place of safety – all because someone had thrown something they shouldn't have in their bin.

Andy, who was driving the bin lorry that day, said: "Where we were collecting these waste containers from, there might be 100 people living in those flats, 99 people might be disposing of their waste properly, it just takes the one doesn't it?"

On this particular day, Andy and his team had emptied the containers from the flats into the vehicle and later noticed smoke coming from the back.

"We pulled the curtains aside, there was flames leaping up the back," he said.

"Because there were parked cars all around, we drove to where there were no cars and rang the fire brigade."

He said in the meantime the flames were getting worse.

The fire service arrived and could get to the hopper but couldn't access the waste because of the design of the vehicle.

The fire had affected the hydraulics so it couldn't be opened.

They drove to the premises of a partner organisation where they knew they could park up away from the public.

Andy said: "That was the other side of Macclesfield, less than a 10-minute journey, but the fire brigade travelled with us because the vehicle was still on fire."

He added: "If it had gone up properly it could have been quite dangerous because we were close to that block of flats."

Ann-Marie Lindsley, acting head of service for environmental operations, said: "This is why we go so big on 'don't put this in your bin, don't put that in your bin'.

"It's not scaremongering because it happens and that's why we do campaigns on it."

That fire is believed to have been started by a battery.

Ann-Marie said: "When you say battery fires, people think of actual physical batteries and don't necessarily associate it with the lithium batteries which are particularly the problem, like your watch, vapes – people don't associate that as being hazardous but they should never be put in a bin.

"Electric toothbrushes – they've all got batteries, but you don't see it because it's a sealed unit, so it's about getting people to understand that."

She added: "We had a recent fire in Disley on a very narrow street where there's cars either side and nowhere for them to manoeuvre the vehicle, so then you're knocking on doors saying 'please move your car' because if it gets hot it will pass the flames along to the next vehicle – so a lot depends on where they are when it happens as well."

Last month a massive fire broke out at a recycling plant in Widnes.

At its height, around 20 fire engines were battling the blaze as flames ripped through the building which was storing waste.

That blaze was believed to have been sparked by a damaged lithium-ion battery, from a disposable vape that had been incorrectly placed in general waste or recycling.

Electrical items, batteries and anything containing batteries, can be taken to your local tip and disposed of in the special containers set aside for those items.

So next time you're wondering whether it is safe to put something in your bin, for the sake of the bin crews, 'if in doubt, leave it out'.

You can check on the council's website here What waste goes where to find out how to dispose of your waste safely.