How our waste collection services work

How household waste works 

Most households have a fortnightly household waste collection from black bins. Find out when your bins and waste will be collected. 

A few households are on a blue bin bag collection. These include:

• Flats with communal collections
• Households with no front or side gardens to store a wheeled bin and no access to a rear garden other than through the house
• Households on narrow lanes where access is restricted and regular waste collection vehicles are not used

Properties with only a back garden, that can’t be accessed from the outside will also keep bagged rubbish collections. They will be collected fortnightly.

We’ll be assessing some houses converted into flats to work out their needs. These properties will receive new bins tailored to the number of people living there and space available.

More information

• Read more about how household waste works. 
• Find out what goes in your household waste.
• Find out more about how to order and collect bags if you're a new resident.

How recycling works - green bags

• The council provides green waterproof recycling bags for each residence to dispose of recycling
• Residents can put out as many recycling bags as they can fill with items we collect at the kerbside - See what to put in recycling bags
• Extra green recycling bags can be collected from a local hub
• Bags must be sealed at all times to make sure all recycling stays dry
• All items must be placed loose (not in plastic bags) in the bags
• Wash and squash items like bottles and tins to make the most of the space in your bags
• Rinse out tins and bottles to keep the bags clean and stop smells
• We collect your recycling from your green bags every other week, on the weeks when we don’t empty your wheeled rubbish bin. Find out when your bins and waste will be collected.

How garden waste works - brown bin or brown sack

• We provide an annual brown bin collection service for garden waste which is chargeable - bins are collected fortnightly - find collection days
• To order an annual brown bin for collection use our garden waste collection order form
• You can also buy brown sacks to dispose of garden waste - brown sacks are also collected on your fortnightly garden waste collection day - find collection days
• Find out what you can dispose of in garden waste
• Find out where to leave your garden waste for collection

How food waste works 

• To find out what to put in your bin and where to put it food waste collections page 
• The council provides a small indoor food waste caddy for your kitchen, and a larger lockable black food outdoor waste bin to put out for collection
• Residents in flats can put their food waste into the larger red wheeled bin, in the bin store
• Food waste bins can be collected from a local hub
• Food waste is collected every week at the same time we collect your rubbish and recycling
• Only put food waste in the caddy - no packaging
• You can line you bin with any plastic bags such as bread bags and carrier bags, along with food waste bags or newspapers
• We'll only collect food waste and oil (in a plastic bottle) from the outdoor food waste containers