Around a third of all households in York will see their collection day for recycling changed from this Monday (3 April).
Areas affected include Foxwood, Askham Lane and Front Street.
To check when your next collection is, visit: www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup.
You can also get alerts sent straight to your phone to remind you of your next collection day by downloading the free One Planet York app.
As a result of the review, all collection times will now vary. So all households, even if they are not changing day, must present their household waste, green garden waste bins and recycling on the kerbside by 7am on the morning of their collection
Cllr Andrew Waller, executive member for the environment, said: “We have made these changes so that we can give recycling a boost. This will improve how we use our vehicles and ensure our staff have the resources to bring new services for even more residents.
“We have been working with residents in the months leading up to the changes, and have provided free boxes, lids and nets for residents who have requested these, in the areas changing over to help people to do more.
“Improving recycling levels will reduce landfill tax to enable more council funds to be used on frontline services. This will link with campaigns such as the community recycling fund across the whole city to encourage a higher recycling rate.
“We also want to remind all residents, even if they are not changing their day of collection that the time of their collections may alter.”
These changes will make our waste service more efficient and cost effective. By reorganising our collection routes we will be able to include York’s new housing developments and homes without having to allocate additional resources. The service will also save approximately £400k, reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and enable the roll out of recycling collections to rural areas of the city that don’t currently have them.
Rubbish (grey bin/black bags) and garden waste (green bin) collections are not affected by the changes.
In addition to the review in recycling rounds, we will also ensure our kerbside recycling collection service runs at full capacity.
We’ll replace old failing vehicles with new ones, which will reduce the need to mix the contents of the recycling boxes (which happens when we used replacement vehicles). This is known as comingling recycling and in 2015/16 over 2,900 tonnes was mixed, which cost the council around £200k to separate (compared to if it was already separated).
We’ll also ensure waste vehicles in terraced areas are replaced with more economical vehicles. This change means that a much higher proportion of council employees will be permanent and as such more familiar with the collection rounds.
A second phase of the review of waste services will take place next year and will look at rubbish collections (grey bins/black bags) and green waste collections. It will focus mainly on the opportunities we can take following the introduction of the new waste vehicles in 2018/19.
Households affected by the changes were sent new rubbish and recycling calendars in early March – well in advance of the changes taking place. For more information visit www.york.gov.uk.wastechanges
The changes were approved at a council meeting (decision session) on Monday 9 January. To view a copy of the report visit: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=870&MId=9761
