UK Councils Consider Reducing Bin Collections To Help Climate Change

Fact checked
bin men collecting bins

Some UK councils are thinking about cutting back bin collections in order to help climate change.

The idea is being considered by one in six local authorities they say will not only make savings, but also slash carbon emissions from bin lorries.

Supporters of the move claim it will encourage people to recycle more to avoid black bins overflowing by the time they are collected. Critics, however have dismissed the idea it as “cutting back on key services while wasting money willy-nilly elsewhere”.

MSN reports: One council looking to change from a fortnightly to a four-weekly collection for its 155,000 households is South Gloucestershire, an area with one of England’s highest recycling rates at 60 percent. Its cabinet has voted to assess switching to three or four-weekly collections for its black bins and green waste from 2025, when its contract with bin collector Suez ends.

Moving to four weeks would save the council £800,000 a year, while opting for three weeks would save £500,000.

Council papers suggest a three-weekly collection could increase recycling by four percent and cut carbon emissions by 2,000 tonnes each year.

The Local Government Association claims that inflation and energy price rises will contribute to an additional £2.4billion in “unforeseen extra cost pressures” on council budgets this year. It is feared they will be forced to reduce services as a result, with rubbish collections an obvious target.

4 Comments

  1. It’s all rubbish I put my bin out when it’s full which is about once every 3 weeks. I’ve done it for years and now neighbours do too so the farbobgetzca quick run. People are like robots putting out their bim’s each week when there’s almost nothing in most of them.

  2. I long moved to Borneo, which I often tell people is more civilized than the UK. Here our bins are emptied twice a week. The thought of going back to weekly, fortnightly or even 3 weeks – 4 weeks… that’s horrific. Are they still turning the street lights off at night?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.