Weekly garden waste service starts on 21st April

Cotswold District Council’s new weekly charged-for garden waste collection service will start from Monday, 21st April, and food waste will also be collected across much of the District from that date.

This means that everyone who has received a new food waste container will be able to put it out weekly for collection from 21st April and those householders who have paid for the garden waste service will be able to empty food waste into their green wheeled bins.

However, the rest of the Council’s new waste and recycling service has been delayed. Householders are therefore advised to continue to put out their non-recyclable waste in black bin bags for the time-being. This landfill waste will continue to be collected weekly, not fortnightly, until the new service starts.

Cllr Mark Tufnell, Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “The delivery of new wheeled bins and other containers to more than 38,000 addresses across an area of 450 square miles is a major logistical operation.

“We had hoped this delivery process would be complete in time for the whole of the District to start on the new service from 21st April.

“Unfortunately, this will not now be the case, so we are delaying the introduction of parts of the new service until everyone has received their new containers.

“However, we WILL be starting the new weekly collection of garden waste in green wheeled bins and brown paper sacks from 21st April for everyone who has paid for that element of the service and we will also be collecting food waste from that date.”

Residents who have paid for the new weekly garden waste service will soon receive annual licences to attach to their green wheeled bins so that the binmen will know who has paid.

Every household will be informed shortly of the start date for the rest of the new waste and recycling service, including the fortnightly collection of card and cardboard for recycling and the fortnightly collection of non-recyclable waste in new wheeled bins or coloured refuse bags.

Until then, the Council is urging residents who have received their new containers not to use their blue reusable cardboard sack, grey wheeled bin or beige refuse bags.

“We are hopeful that the roll-out of the new service will only be delayed by a number of weeks,” added Cllr Tufnell.

“In the meantime, residents should continue to put out their waste and recyclables under the current arrangements and we are asking those people who have received cardboard sacks, grey wheeled bins or beige refuse bags not to use them yet.”

The recycling rate has soared already in and around the three small Cotswold villages of Birdlip, Cowley and Coberley, where residents have been receiving the new service for the past month.

Cllr Tufnell added: “The overriding aim of the new service is to achieve significant reductions in the amount of rubbish from the Cotswolds that we bury at landfill sites.

“Initial figures from the first three weeks of collections in and around Birdlip, Cowley and Coberley saw landfill waste drop from the usual 11.4 tonnes to just 6.4 tonnes.

“We expect to see similar reductions elsewhere when we roll out the service across the rest of the District.”

For more information, visit www.cotswold.gov.uk or call the Council’s Waste Hotline on 01285 623123.

To download a copy of the postcard with more information please click here