Garden and food waste collection suspended for two weeks following backlog

West Berkshire Council have announced that the garden waste collection service will be suspended from Monday 18 to Friday 29 January 2021. They are asking residents whose garden waste is due for collection on or after 18 January 2021 to not put their green garden waste bin out until service can be resumed again from 1 February 2021. This change will also affect food waste collections because they are collected at the same time as garden waste.

The Council explain:

Like many other local authorities across the country, we are facing a difficult January with significantly increased volumes of waste after the Christmas holiday period and a number of collection crews self-isolating. This has impacted parts of our waste collection services meaning we have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend garden and food waste collections to prioritise rubbish and recycling.

At the close of play on Tuesday 12 January, about 5,300 recycling collections (equivalent to just under 8% of households) remained outstanding. The collection of other waste types including general refuse is being completed without any significant disruptions at this time.

If your rubbish (black bin) or recycling (boxes and bags) is not collected as expected, the council ask that you please continue to leave it out and they will collect it as soon as possible.

The council say that they are grateful to residents for their continued patience. They are asking residents to kindly avoid calling their Customer Services colleagues, unless necessary, because they are very busy helping various residents with other urgent queries at this time.

You can find out more information on the garden waste service from Council’s website. Their household waste recycling centres are still open for essential visits but you need to book an appointment.