Garden waste to be collected across Central Bedfordshire to help clear backlog before winter

But, food waste will not be collected during the two week period

One-off garden waste collections will be happening from tomorrow (18 October) in Central Bedfordshire, to help clear the backlog of waste in residents’ garden waste bins before the winter period.

The national shortage of LGV drivers has meant the council’s contractor has been unable to collect household garden waste since late July.

Garden waste will be collected between 18 October and the 30 October.

But, to facilitate this, drivers are having to be redeployed from the usual weekly food waste collections for two weeks.

This means that food waste will not be collected during this time.

Instead, people are being asked to home compost their food waste where possible, fill their food waste bin ready for when collections resume, or dispose of it in black bins.

People should put their garden waste bin, or their two council issued bags, at the kerbside from 7am for a one-off collection.

This should be done on the same week and day that residents have their recycling collected.

Food waste collections will resume, as normal, from 1 November.

Due to the high volumes of garden waste expected, collection crews will not collect any additional waste and cannot return if residents forget to put out their bin/bags.

If any road isn’t visited on the scheduled day, crews will return as soon as they can, so people are asked to continue to leave their bin/bags out.

Councillor Ian Dalgarno, Executive Member for Community Services, said:

“We are delighted to be able to collect the backlog of garden waste.

“I would like to once again thank residents for their patience and understanding over the past couple of months and apologise for the difficulties the suspension has raised for residents.

“To help us manage the expected volume of garden waste that needs collecting, residents can continue to help us ease the demand by disposing of their garden waste at one of our tidy tips where possible, or by taking up our offer of a subsidised home composting bin.

“Some food waste such as vegetable peelings and tea bags can also be home composted during the two-week pause in collections.

“We would like to remind residents that due to the high volumes of garden waste expected collection crews will only be able to collect either a garden waste bins, or two council issued bags.

“We will not return if residents forget to put out their bin/bags.”

More information can be found on the council’s website.

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