Basingstoke bin collections could change
The council is considering changes at a meeting this week
People in Basingstoke will be able to recycle food from next year if plans to make changes in collections are approved.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Cabinet will consider a proposal to introduce a new weekly food waste collections from next October, at a meeting on Tuesday 30 July.
The move, collecting plate scrapings, peelings and other food waste to turn into greener energy, would take out over a third of what currently goes into grey bins. This comes in response to calls from residents to be able to recycle more.
Introducing the new service in October 2025 would put the borough ahead of the deadline set out in the Environment Act for having to bring in mandatory food waste collections.
Cabinet will also consider a proposal to extend the joint contract with Hart District Council and Serco to collect the waste for the next eight years from October 2025 and to move to a different weekly waste and recycling collection routine from 30 September 2026.
Basingstoke and Deane currently has a recycling rate of just 29%, sitting 269th out of 317 authorities across England and fourth from bottom in Hampshire. Adding a food waste collection could boost recycling rates as high as 52%.
Recycling rates are set to rise even higher with changes being proposed by Hampshire County Council, which disposes of and recycles the borough’s waste. These changes will result in upgrades to the county council’s recycling sorting plant and network that will mean residents will be able to put even more items into their green bins.
In future, this will include plastic pots, tubs and trays and food and drink cartons being collected for recycling in the borough.
Redesign
Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services and Housing Cllr Laura James said:
“Residents have been asking us to introduce food waste collections for some time and we have been looking at the best way to do this across the borough as soon as possible.
“We have listened and, if approved by Cabinet next week, this decision will see the introduction of a new weekly food waste collection from October next year, removing over a third of waste from residents’ grey bins.
“When combined with Hampshire County Council’s plans to increase what can be recycled, including many more plastics, this would boost recycling and mean very little will need to go to waste in the grey bin.
“All of these changes will give us the opportunity to redesign the weekly collection service. Weekly collection of food waste addresses issues around smells and food attracting animals to bins.
“We can then consider the most efficient, value-for-taxpayers’ money waste collection service, alongside our cross-council commitment to cut carbon under our unanimously agreed climate and ecological emergency declarations.”
Cabinet will consider a report that says reducing what goes into the grey bins to a minimum gives the opportunity to redesign the waste collection service with weekly food waste collections and different weekly bin collections, green recycling bin one week and grey waste the other. If agreed, this would be introduced in September 2026.