Buckinghamshire Council food waste collection update

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8 September 2021

Food waste suspension – EXTENDED – Chiltern & Wycombe

Buckinghamshire Council is asking residents in Chiltern and Wycombe to carry on disposing of food waste in their general rubbish until further notice.

Residents in these areas have already been asked to throw away food waste with their general household waste for the last four weeks. The Council is having to extend this arrangement because of the on-going national HGV driver shortage.

Brown food caddies will still be emptied if they’re put out on general rubbish week only, but this waste will not be recycled during this time.

Despite best efforts to recruit new drivers and upskill existing staff, there are still not enough drivers to reinstate separate food collections on 13 September as previously planned.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Please see below FAQs about this service change :

When is the service changing?

  • Food waste has been collected as general rubbish since Monday 16 August and residents need to continue to place food waste in the general rubbish bin until further notice. 
  • The weekly food waste service will not resume as planned on 13 September.

Where should residents put food waste instead?

  • Residents can put food waste in their general rubbish bin, or if they run out of space, use the brown food bin and present on general rubbish week, but this will not be recycled.
  • Food waste will not be collected in the brown bin on recycling week

Why is this happening?

  • Due to both a national shortage of HGV drivers and a small number of Covid-19 related cases, including crew being required to self-isolate in line with Government guidelines, residents living in the Chiltern and Wycombe areas have been experiencing significant disruption to their household bin collection service.
  • Buckinghamshire Council is working alongside its contractor, Veolia, to minimise further disruptions, but recruitment and training of HGV drivers is difficult in the current market and takes time.
  • By collecting food waste as general rubbish, more drivers will be available to collect general rubbish, recycling and garden waste services during periods of peak demand.

What is the council and Veolia doing to address the issue with HGV drivers?

  • Our contractor Veolia is taking proactive measures to address the staff shortage, including incentivised recruitment packages and retention bonuses for staff.
  • The shortage of HGV drivers is a national problem and is affecting all industries.

Why are food waste collections changing and not garden waste like in other local councils?

  • The garden waste service is used most in the summer months and we recognise that suspending this service would cause an inconvenience to residents
  • By collecting food waste as general rubbish temporarily, all of the usual materials residents dispose of at the kerbside will still be collected.

Why is the food waste service only being suspended in the Chiltern & Wycombe area and not all of Buckinghamshire?

The collection services within Buckinghamshire are split with a mixture of outsourced providers and in-house services. All are feeling the impact of the national driver shortage affecting our industry at the moment. However, the Chiltern & Wycombe area is seeing more impact with service disruption. By taking action now to temporarily suspend only the Food Waste service, it will help to reduce the level of disruption residents might otherwise experience. Other neighbouring councils have taken similar measures to suspend services including Garden Waste collections. Buckinghamshire Council are trying to maintain the Garden Waste service, which is very popular with our residents.

What will happen to food waste if it’s not recycled

Food waste and general rubbish is not landfilled; it will be taken to an Energy from Waste plant in Greatmoor, Buckinghamshire

How else can I recycle food waste?

Is food waste unsafe if left for longer than 1 week?

  • There is extremely little risk to householders if food waste is bagged and contained in the general rubbish bin for two weeks.
  • To limit nuisance, householders should:
  • keep containers outdoors and, if possible, out of direct sunlight;
  • ensure waste is properly contained and there is no access for flies or rodents
  • wrap food waste;
  • wash hands and work surfaces after contact with waste
  • maintain hygiene of containers by washing and/or disinfecting regularly, both inside and out;
  • use a liner or place paper within the bin to soak up wet residues.

Why are you doing this as it is not environmentally friendly?

  • The first duty of any local authority is to protect the health of staff and residents. An options appraisal was conducted and temporarily collecting food as general rubbish was considered the best way to prevent the build-up of general rubbish, recycling and garden waste during this challenging period.
  • This service change is only temporary and we will be encouraging residents to use the separate food waste recycling service as soon as we are able to reinstate this service.