Black wheelie bins with general waste will only be collected every THREE weeks under new plans unveiled by Cheshire East Council.
The change is part of proposals set out on changes to bin collections across the borough.
Under the “Simpler Recycling Scheme” legislation announced in October 2023, local councils must collect food waste from residents each week by no later than 1 April 2026.
So the council wants to cut back on collecting black bins to balance out the costs of the extra food waste collections.
Next week, the council’s environment and communities committee will consider a report that seeks approval for rolling out the changes in Cheshire East.
The plan is to:
– collect food waste alongside the fortnightly garden bin rounds
– a separate food collection round in the alternate weeks
– collect black bins every three weeks, instead of every fortnight
Council chiefs say the plans would increase recycling rates by almost 5% and reduce the financial burden of introducing weekly food waste collections by more than £1 million each year.
Cllr Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council’s environment and communities committee, said: “Introducing weekly food waste collections is a significant operational change affecting almost all our residents, and the financial impacts will also be significant.
“At the moment, we don’t know how much funding we will receive from Government to compensate the council for introducing these changes, and there’s a significant risk that the funding won’t cover the costs in full.
“Any shortfall will place an even bigger pressure on the council’s finances – we’re already forecasting a funding gap of £100m over the next four years.
“That’s why – along with wishing to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle more of their waste – at the same time as weekly food waste collections are introduced, we’re proposing to move to collecting black bins once every three weeks.
“It offers the best value for money and would reduce the demand on our existing fleet of bin wagons and staff and make a significant revenue saving in excess of £1m per year.”
In late 2023, a Government consultation was launched which included draft guidance requiring councils to collect residual (black bin) waste each fortnight as a minimum.
CEC replied saying it would have a detrimental impact on the ability of councils to increase recycling rates and to be able to join up large-scale operational changes because of weekly food waste collections.
Cllr Warren added: “We understand as a local authority, if the guidance is passed by Government through the Parliamentary process, we could not make these proposed changes to black bin collections.
“However, we are proposing to carry out this consultation now so we are in a position to move forward with what is the most cost effective and least risky solution for introducing weekly food waste collections, which can also meet the deadline previously set by the Government.”
The consultation on black bin collections is expected to launch in September.
Now that would be logical!!
Wise decision, even as a family of four my black bin is only ever half full after a couple of weeks. As long as people are recycling there’s very little that actually goes in the black bin. I’d be surprised if many have a full black bin after two weeks that wasn’t full of recyclables.
Got to save money to pay finance exc 25k a month
This is ridiculous, yet another bin. As a family of 5 our recycling bin and black bin are full every two weeks. It’s a health hazard to have waste lying uncollected for 3 weeks, not to mention how unsightly having all these different bins is going to make our towns look. This needs proper consultation with local residents.
I contacted Cllr Warren with regards to charging for the garden waste to find an explanation he cut and paste a response that he gave the local press as a response. No personal response there. What I find is they do not listen to the very people that pay into the council. Our opinions do not matter and I am sure they will not finish until they have ruined the council and our area. How much does a consultation cost I am sure that is not cheap either! We will have more bins than space.
Good timing, one week after the election. I certainly didn’t vote for this cretinous bunch.
so lets get this right, garden bin and grey bin every two weeks
food waste bin every week????
and black bin every three weeks
why are we having trucks on the road to collect food waste every week??? staggering as I never waste food, only veg peelings go into the bin after they are washed and used for stock, just who can afford/be thick and gormless enough to waste food
sorry this is madness, no saving at all
THINK AGAIN YOU MUPPETS!!
If I recall, a new recycling centre was built so that food and grass was put into the same bin and then separated within the centre AND if you didn;t uptake the green bin charge, then you could put your food waste into the black bin. So why are we now potentially having another bin for food waste products and the black bin potentially going to collection every three weeks. So another bin getting collected – Black bin (3 week recycle period), Grass bin (2 week recycle period) and food waste bin (1 week recycle period). I wouldn’t want any food waste to be waiting around for collection more than on a weekly cycle. How is that saving money, when introducing 3 separate collections over a 3 week period, when it is currently a 2 week recycle period. I can see that not only will be pay extra as in the Green bin (currently £56 per year), but we could in the future be charged for our other bin collections, on top of the extortionate Council tax rates. I have noticed a massive decline in the infrastructure of the Cheshire East area over this past year and jobs not getting done. Only last week, I had to clear out the road gutters outside my property, so that rain water could drain down, that is whilst heavy road traffic on A51 was hurtling by. (Have reported issue last fortnight on Fix My Street (what a joke of a service) and have heard nothing, that is on top of reporting same issue February this year and was told it wasn’t an issue. I shouldn’t have to put myself in danger to do the Council’s jobs. Extremely inept run Council.
Why not just remove the charge on the garden waste bin and let us continue to use it for food waste? I’d be happy with that
No mention of the grey recycling bin here. When will that get collected
Total load of rubbish if this is put into action and is a reaction to the councils own greed in charging us for the garden bin which you used to be able to put your food waste in,but under legislation you cannot charge for the removal of food waste, so guess what they told us to put it in the black bin .
We as tax payers are being ripped off by this Incompetent labour run council,I can only hope the new labour government are better at running the whole of Britain than a local authority, what are the chances
Am I wrong here, can we be forced to have a third bin ? It’s absolutely stupid decision by those who are devoid of ideas, incompetent and by default or possibly planned will stimulate “fly tipping” Surely we as locals should be involved in this decision
How much of a rebate do we get on our rates