Thanks to you we have recycled more than 500 tonnes of food waste

Thanks to you, more than 500 tonnes of food waste have now been recycled and will be turned into agricultural fertiliser for farmers and renewable energy, all part of our Cleaner Borough plan to invest in your rubbish and recycling services.

And in response to feedback, we wanted to highlight some handy tips on putting your rubbish and recycling out correctly, so we make sure that your waste gets collected.

Handy tips
We have also put together some handy tips reminding people how to put their rubbish, recycling, food waste and small electricals out: 

• Put your rubbish, recycling, food waste and small electricals out for collection early on your usual day or the night before.   
  
  
• Place your rubbish and recycling just inside the edge of your property or garden, so the waste crews can see it easily.
  
  
• You can use a dustbin for your bagged rubbish and recycling, but we cannot collect from a wheelie bin.

• Your rubbish and recycling collections may now be at different times of the day and collected in separate vehicles. This means some collections will be earlier than you are used to. Report missed collections after 4pm.   

• Rubbish and garden waste goes into refuse sacks (e.g. a black sack), recycling in council recycling sacks and food waste in your outdoor brown caddy.   

• Small electricals: unwanted or broken small electrical items can be put out for recycling next to your rubbish and recycling. Use a plastic bag to contain any leads if you need to.

Our Cleaner Borough Plan
Our Cleaner Borough Plan is making it easier and simpler to recycle, as well as driving a more sustainable borough. Here’s an update on progress we have made already, as all as what’s to come and how we will achieve it along with all residents locally: 

• Food waste collections for all – we have rolled out food waste collections to all eligible households, with flats getting the service later this year. 

• Small electrical collections for all – we have rolled out small electrical collections to all eligible households. If you don’t have a home collection, recycling banks have been rolled out across the whole borough, including at all libraries.  

• Guaranteed weekly bin collections – many councils are moving away from weekly collections – but we will continue to pick up waste every week. 

• Better services for housing estates – we have already started to provide more bins, better signage and improved communications on estates and will continue this work across the borough.   

• A new fleet of modern vehicles – will run on a bio-fuel, this will result up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions.   

• More Mega Skips – due to popular demand and their success in reducing fly-tipping by 16%, we have doubled the number of mega skips locations.