Council’s waste crews gearing up for their busiest time of the year

Since Swindon Borough Council rolled out its borough-wide new food waste collection service last month, local people have recycled around 450 tonnes of food waste so far.

But with the festive period now well and truly underway, Swindonians will be able to recycle their turkey carcasses and unwanted sprouts instead of placing it in their general waste as they may have done in previous years.

To support the Council’s crews over the busiest time of year, residents are asked to make sure they place their recycling in the correct containers and are mindful of any additional waste.

Residents are reminded to squash down their plastic and metal recycling to fit as much in the blue weighted recycling bag as possible. Any additional recycling should be placed in another sturdy container as the Council’s crews will not collect plastic presented in a single use plastic bag. Please note: these changes do not affect properties with a communal bin store as these residents can still use single use bags for their plastic recycling.

Additional food waste recycling can be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre, by booking a slot on the Council’s website.

Excess cardboard that does not fit in recycling boxes, will be collected as long as it is bundled and tied together. The cardboard bundle should be no taller than the height of two recycling boxes or wider than one recycling box (approximately 65cm x 65cm). Large pieces of cardboard should be cut or folded into smaller sheets, so the Council’s crews can easily place them into the recycling lorries.

• Foil trays, such as mince pie cases, can be placed in the weighted recycling bag, alongside any other plastic and metal recycling
• Most Christmas cards can be placed in the recycling box with any other paper and card recycling. Residents are asked not to put cards in the recycling if they have glitter, foil, plastics or embellishments such as badges or beads
• Wrapping paper made from paper, without any tape, and free of glitter can be recycled in the recycling box. Laminated or foil paper can’t. If you can scrunch it and it doesn’t spring back, you can recycle it
• Turkey and other meat bones can be placed in the food waste caddy
• Any leftover potatoes, veg and peelings, can also be placed in your food waste caddy

Other items can be searched using the Waste Wizard tool on Council website.

Local residents are also encouraged to waste as little as possible, if they can, by buying presents with little packaging, or plan their food shopping. This includes checking what ingredients are already in the cupboard so they are not bought twice, while fridges can be set to 5°C or colder to make food last longer.

The Council won’t be making waste and recycling collections on Monday 25 or Tuesday, 26 December.

Residents who are due to have a collection on either of these days should put their containers out ready for collection by 6.30am on Wednesday, 27 December and leave it out until it is collected. Collection may take place in stages so please leave out anything that hasn’t been collected.

As the crews catch up with these collections, there could be disruption to other collections planned for that week so if waste or recycling isn't picked up on its usual collection day, the Council asks that affected residents leave it out and the crews will pick it up as soon as they can.

Waste and recycling collections will run as normal over the New Year bank holiday.

The Council's garden waste collection service will be suspended between 25 December 2023 and 5 January 2024, as per the terms and conditions of the service.

Christmas tree collections

To allow the crews to focus on the recent waste and recycling service changes, the Council will only be collecting real Christmas trees from its garden waste subscribers.

Other households, who do not have a garden waste subscription, can take their tree to the Household Waste Recycling Centre by booking a slot.

Residents can also recycle their tree in aid of Prospect Hospice who are collecting trees, for a donation, on Saturday, 6 and Sunday, 7 January 2024. This service is limited and will be operated on a first come, first served basis.

Councillor Chris Watts, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “This is the first Christmas that the crews will be running the new waste and recycling collection service and they will be working incredibly hard to ensure they provide the best service that they can for local residents.

“The festive season is their busiest time of the year, so please bear with us. People in Swindon have really embraced the changes to waste and recycling and the hundreds of tonnes of food waste that have already been recycled show what can be done.

“Please keep up the good work, because all the food waste we collect generates energy in the form of electricity and also fertiliser for farmers’ crops.

“If you have excess cardboard, please ensure it is bundled and tied up into manageable pieces for our crews and if all your recycling containers are full, please use another sturdy container to place any excess recycling, it will really help our crews.”