A success story for other councils

Numbers add up to greener results

Out of 295 councils in England:

• 239 collect recycling and rubbish fortnightly on alternating weeks
• 13 collect recycling fortnightly and rubbish every three weeks

This means just over 85 per cent no longer collect rubbish or recycling every week - and more are abandoning weekly collections, while keeping or adopting weekly food waste collections, all the time.

The national average recycling rate has increased from 11.2 per cent in 2000/01, when alternating weekly collections began taking off, to 42.5 per cent in 2021/22.

The same trend is seen by individual councils soon after they stop collecting weekly – including our neighbours, as we explained on previous pages.

So while it's great to know our recycling rate of 55 per cent is well above the national average, it's even more exciting to think how much further these changes could push us.

Great outcomes with recycling bags

We know some of you would prefer to have a wheeled bin for recycling, and we will consider this when we renew our waste collection contract in 2026.

But according to research by waste reduction charity WRAP, dozens of councils have succeeded with fortnightly recycling collections from bags alongside fortnightly wheeled rubbish bin collections.

Cotswold District Council in Gloucestershire has been beating our recycling rates since at least 2015 after it started collecting recycling from reusable sacks and boxes, and rubbish from a wheeled bin, on alternating weeks.

Its current recycling rate is 59 per cent and residents recycled 8,686 tonnes of dry waste in 2021/22, up from 7,855 tonnes in 2015/16.

Maldon District Council in Essex adopted a similar system in 2016 and its recycling rate increased from 47 per cent to 58 per cent in just one year, propelling them from 117th place for recycling nationally to 21st.

Its total recycled waste has since increased by more than one-third, from 10,546 tonnes to 14,742 tonnes (2021/22), while discarded rubbish has decreased from 12,163 tonnes to 9,926 tonnes.

Colchester, near Maldon, followed suit in 2017 and its recycling rate almost immediately rose from 46 per cent to 55 per cent. Recycled waste has since risen from 27,704 tonnes to 33,812 tonnes while rubbish has dropped from 32,379 tonnes to 28,635 tonnes.

No problems for our neighbours

Residents in West Berkshire also use a reusable sack and two boxes for recycling, collected every two weeks, with rubbish collected fortnightly from a wheeled bin.

Some have built outdoor stores for their containers, while others simply stack them somewhere suitable. This has been the case for more than a decade and has proven easy to follow.

West Berkshire's recycling rate has been above the national average since at least 2015, placing it among the top 50 per cent of local authorities nationally and in the South East.

This shows that when recycling is collected fortnightly, whatever the container, residents find a way to store it on their properties.

It can increase recycling rates if people are willing to do the right thing and share their council's goal of protecting the environment.

We know we can make a huge difference with these changes - and we urge you to support us.