Outrage in UK city as black bin collections set to be reduced to once a month

There is outrage in a UK city due to plans to reduce bin collections to just once a month.

Black bin collections could be reduced to once every four weeks under drastic proposals by Bristol City Council, according to a leaked document obtained by the Local Democracy Reportng Service. 

Recycling days could also be cut to “less frequently than weekly” if an option for one wheelie bin for all recyclable materials is taken forward, while another would see multiple bins for different items collected every three weeks. 

The documents say the local authority needs to make savings amid soaring costs and a huge budget blackhole, as well as targeting better recycling rates.

The council is launching a yet-to-be-announced public consultation next week, which will ask what householders think about reducing black bin days from fortnightly to monthly.

It follows a decision by South Gloucestershire Council to cut collections of non-recyclable household waste to every three weeks, having also proposed options of reducing collections to once every three or four weeks. 

The leaked Bristol City Council document said: “Through changes in regulation and increasing operational, inflation and investment costs, our waste and recycling service is facing an additional bill of £5million to £9million per year.

“Without cost reductions we may need to reduce services and performance standards. This amount will be reduced if we can recycle more and waste less.”

Bristol City Council will ask residents if they would like the current arrangements to stay the same or choose from three alternatives.

Keeping the service as it was would mean no decrease in carbon emissions from collecting and treating waste and recycling. Between £500,000 and £1 million would still have to be spent on educational campaigns to maintain performance.

Another proposal – reducing bin collections to every three weeks – would boost the recycling rate by about 6%, with about 40% reduction in carbon emissions. This would result in a saving of about £1million.

A third option, collecting bins every four weeks, would increase the recycling rate by 10% and there would be a 50% drop in carbon emissions, while an estimated £2 million would be saved. 

The proposals apply to households only, not businesses or flats with communal collections or mini-recycling centres. They also said that the council needed to replace its recycling vehicles in 2027, which opened the door for other ways of storing recycling Bristol City Council will ask residents if they would like the current arrangements to stay the same or choose from three alternatives. The first is a larger sack for card and paper and a large sack for plastic and cans instead of a box.

The second is for one wheeled bin for each recycling material – card and paper, plastic and cans, and glass – which would each be collected alternately every week, ensuring each is picked up three-weekly. And the third is for one larger capacity wheelie bin for all paper, card, plastic and cans mixed together, collected less than weekly, although the document does not say how often this would be.

Bristol City Council has been contacted for comment.