Date issued: 19 June 2020
Fortnightly waste and recycling collections are to restart across Colchester, from 22 June.
From that date, residents are advised to use the 2020/21 recycling calendar, which covers the period until March 2021, or visit www.colchester.gov.uk/recycling, to check their regular collection information.
The announcement of a return to a normal service – except for textiles – follows temporary changes introduced in April in line with Government advice on prioritising waste collections during the coronavirus crisis.
Regular garden waste collections resumed on 25 May. The decision to phase the return to a normal service over several weeks helped support recycling crews who, while already working in difficult circumstances, have picked up higher volumes of waste than normal during the lockdown period.
The latest figures for paper and plastic, since monthly collections began on 14 April, show 1,143.5 tonnes of paper (142.9 tonnes per week average) and 449.8 tonnes of plastic (56.2 tonnes per week average) were recycled in the borough.
Since monthly collections of glass and cans began on the 28 April, 885.5 tonnes of glass (110.6 tonnes per week average) and 207.7 tonnes of cans (25.9 tonnes per week average) were recycled borough-wide.
Following the resumption, on 25 May, of Garden Waste collections 1,424.9 tonnes (474.9 tonnes per week average) have been picked up kerbside. In addition, extra vehicles on Saturdays picked up 109.4 tonnes over a four-week period, bringing the total collected to 1534.3 tonnes.
Average weekly collection figures for residual and food waste currently stand at 552.7 tonnes and 132.84 tonnes respectively.
Councillor Martin Goss, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Environment and Transportation, said: “I would like to thank our residents for their understanding and for working with us to support the temporary changes to our recycling and rubbish collections since lockdown began.
“I would especially like to thank our waste and recycling crews – our frontline heroes – for their hard work and dedication throughout this crisis. Despite running a reduced service since early April, they have continued to deal with vast amounts of waste. We salute you.
“Now, thanks to a phenomenal amount of work that has gone on behind the scenes, we are ready to get our recycling collections up and running as normal.”
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Page last reviewed: 19 June 2020