Swindon Borough Council is gearing up for the largest transformation in waste and recycling services for 15 years with a rollout of waste food recycling borough wide from this autumn.
The majority of households across Swindon, excluding communal properties like flats (which will be included in a later phase), can expect the introduction of weekly food waste collections. This expansion follows the success of a food waste trial involving approximately 11,000 households since 2019, resulting in over 3,100 tonnes of food waste being recycled.
Implementing weekly food waste collections will mean the council will have to make adjustments to the current waste and recycling collections. Starting in autumn 2023, the collection system will operate as follows:
- General waste in wheelie bins or blue bags.
- Paper and card recycling in existing black/orange recycling boxes.
- Glass recycling in existing black/orange recycling boxes.
- Plastic and metal recycling in new weighted bags (to be delivered during the summer).
- Food waste in large outdoor food waste bins (to be delivered during the summer to non-participants of the food waste trial).
General waste and household recycling will continue to be collected fortnightly, while food waste collections will be made every week.
Over the next few months, households will receive a new weighted bag for plastic and metal recycling, as well as a five-litre food waste caddy for indoor use and a larger 23 litre caddy for outdoor use. Residents who are on the food waste collections trial should continue to use the existing containers they already have.
More information about the new service will be available in a leaflet which will be included with the new containers when they are delivered to households.
Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Councillor Chris Watts, said “These important changes will enable us deliver a comprehensive waste collection service for residents and increase Swindon’s recycling rate.
“Containers are starting to be delivered across the summer – it will take us a fair bit of time to deliver all of the containers as there’s so many of them, so please don’t panic if you don’t receive yours straight away. Once you’ve received your new containers, please keep hold of them as you don’t need to use them just yet. We’ll write to each household individually ahead of the changes to explain in detail what you need to do and when.
“We know how important waste and recycling collections are to residents so we’ll be sharing as much information and advice as we can in the run-up to the changes. A helpful leaflet will be included with the containers, so please do have a read of this to understand more about the new services. Further information will also be available on our website, which we’ll keep regularly updated.”
Swindon Borough Council have put together an FAQs on their website to provide further information on the changes.
