Bin collections in Birmingham to be fortnightly

The changes will come into effect from April next year.

Author: Kellie MaddoxPublished 18th Jul 2024
Last updated 18th Jul 2024

Bin collections in Birmingham will become fortnightly from next year.

The city council is changing the way it collects waste, as pressure remains on the authority to make savings of £365m in the next two years.

It means from April, residual and recycling waste will be collected on alternate weeks, along with an additional food waste collection.

The council said it will be investing in a new fleet of recycling lorries and food waste vehicles, partly paid for by a grant given by DEFRA.

The waste collection IT system will also be replaced and upgraded, which bosses said will improve real-time communications between the operations centre and individual drivers.

Cllr Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “Making these improvements will provide the residents of Birmingham with a better waste collection service that is in line with other councils.

“I know some residents are concerned about moving to a fortnightly residual waste service, but this will not be introduced until we have the food waste collections, meaning people will have less general waste. There will be a phased introduction and we will be communicating all the changes to residents.

“We need to increase our recycling rates in the city so we are proposing small pilots across the city to increase the recycling of paper and card, with the introduction of a second recycling bin to replace the current pod. This will increase the storage capacity for paper and card in households.”

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