Swindon to get weekly food waste collections

Swindon Borough Council has spent £7m on new lorries

Weekly food waste recycling collections are due to be rolled out by the council in Swindon this autumn.

Councillors said it is one of the biggest changes to waste and recycling collections in the town in 15 years.

It is also making changes to the way recycling is collected, with glass and paper collected separately, and tins and plastics together.

New containers will be sent out in August with the new collections starting in October.

"It's really beneficial to get that food waste out of our black wheelie bins and into a recycling stream," said Rob Brown, head of waste services at Swindon Borough Council.

"About 40% of our current black wheelie bin waste in terms of weight is food waste, and actually there's an opportunity to recycle that and increase our recycling rate overall."

From this autumn, the following changes will be made:

• General waste collected in wheelie bin or blue bags

• Paper and card recycling collected in one of the existing black/orange recycling boxes

• Glass recycling collected in one of the existing black/orange recycling boxes

• Plastic and metal recycling collected in new weighted bag (which will be delivered over the summer)

• Food waste collected in large outdoor food waste bin (which will be delivered over the summer to residents who are not currently on the food waste trial)

Councillors Rob Brown (Left) Chris Watts (Right) have been advising residents about the changes

General waste and household recycling will continue to be collected every two weeks, with food waste collected weekly.

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 23-litre caddy for outdoor use, and bin liners.

The council said households with the new food waste caddies can continue to use them, as well as their existing black bins.

It follows a trial of weekly food waste collections which 11,000 households in Swindon have been part of since 2019.

'Do not panic'

The council is also spending £7m on new recycling lorries which will replace its current fleet. The new containers cost £600,000.

"When this is implemented, it'll be cost neutral," said councillor Chris Watts, cabinet member for environment and transport.

"But the important thing is we'll be sending far less waste for incineration which environmentally isn't great."

Mr Watts said it will take the council time to deliver all the containers, so the advice is "not to panic" if you do not receive them straight away.

"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," he said.

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