Wheel deal: PICTURE Kylie Gollan and her children, Cooper, 4, and Olivia, 6, celebrate the arrival of rubbish, recycling and green waste bins with new colour coded lids in the City of Bayswater. Picture: Nic Ellis/The West Australian

Six local councils will roll out colour-coded bins and two more have adopted a three-bin system as the State Government works towards its target of diverting 50 per cent of municipal waste from landfill this year.

City of Stirling residents who currently use just one bin will soon have three — a green-lidded bin for green waste, yellow for recyclables and red for rubbish.

The Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup and the towns of Cambridge and Cottesloe use three bins while the City of Bayswater and the Shire of Capel will introduce the new coloured lids.

The Government has also increased funding for its Better Bins program from $7.5 million to $20 million to encourage more councils to sign up.

Environment Minister Albert Jacob said WA generally had much poorer recycling rates than other States, even though it had improved in the past few years.

Mr Jacob said just 38 per cent of WA’s waste was recycled, with materials valued at millions of dollars sent to landfill each year.

He hoped other local governments, particularly in suburban areas, would consider the third bin scheme with the standard colour system.

About 25 per cent of waste came from municipal solid waste (wheelie bins, verge collection etc) so there were “big gains” to be made from separating waste and reducing contamination.

“We can do a lot better,” Mr Jacob said.

“All of the studies in Australia and overseas have shown that source separation is the best way to increase your recycling output at a residential level.”

Waste Authority WA chairman Marcus Geisler said it was important people understood what items went in what bin because it could save local governments and ratepayers money.

“I also believe that it will add to the awareness of actually avoiding waste in the first place because you are forced to think about what you are actually doing,” Mr Geisler said.

Bayswater mayor Sylvan Albert said the city had used a three-bin system successfully for years and the new lids would help with education in schools.

He said the new bins would be rolled out in about six weeks.

“Currently we’ve got different lids out there, we’ve got different numbers of bins – it’s awfully confusing,” Mr Albert said.

Bayswater resident Kylie Gollan, who has been using a three-bin system for several years, said the coloured lids would help teach her young children how to recycle. “The bright lids will be an incentive for the little ones to have a go,” she said.

Mr Jacob was confident the target for 2020 of 65 per cent of municipal solid waste being recycled would be reached.

He said different size bins could be used in areas where residents did not have much storage or verge space as long as the same colours were used.