Following an extensive public consultation earlier this year, councillors have agreed to introduce three weekly black bin waste collections in 2025.
This will be for the majority of properties in North Somerset. Properties not suitable for a less frequent waste collection will keep their current frequency and will be notified prior to the changes taking place.
No changes will take place until 2025. You will be contacted before anything changes but not all of North Somerset will switch to the new frequency at the same time.
We are a high-performing council for recycling and offer a weekly kerbside collection of a wide range of materials including food waste.
Even though you make great efforts to recycle, our recycling rate has been stuck at around 60% over the past 10 years and has actually dropped in recent years. Black bin waste has also started to increase, and we have found that almost half of all of our black bin waste could be recycled.
Our recycling and waste strategy, which was agreed by you in a consultation in 2020, says we're aiming to reduce waste and increase recycling.
Black bin waste costs £130 per tonne to dispose of and this year we will need to spend about £5 million on processing this waste. On the other hand, our kerbside recycling collections result in a high quality of material that we can sell for around £30 per tonne.
Changing the waste collection frequency from fortnightly to every three weeks for most households will generate savings and help pay for vital local services.
Changing the waste collection frequency from fortnightly to every three weeks for most households will:
Following our recent waste consultation we know that some residents have concerns about being able to fit all their waste in their bin. However, it might reassure you to know that several other councils already successfully offer a three weekly waste collection, including our neighbours Somerset. When the change comes we're asking residents to give it a go, you might be surprised by how easy it is.
Advice and support will be available from a team of waste-minimisation officers. They will be able to provide tailored support and advice, as well as potentially providing additional bin capacity for some households who need it, such as:
Recycling will still be collected weekly and will include a weekly collection of food waste, which makes up 27% of the average black bin.
We're also looking at how we can introduce a kerbside collection of soft plastics. We know that soft plastics such as film lids and crisp packets make up around 10% of the average black bin. From the recent consultation there was huge support (80.7%) for a soft plastics collection. This will also be a requirement from government from 2027 but we're looking to introduce it earlier alongside the change to your black bin collections.
You can find answers to the full list of frequently asked questions below.