Date issued: 3 March 2021
The 2021/22 recycling calendar, setting out the schedule for collections between 1 April 2021 and end of March 2022, is now available for residents in Colchester to download.
The calendar provides advice on what items can be recycled through kerbside collections, which containers or bags to use and how to put rubbish and recycling out for collection.
As Christmas falls on a weekend this year, there are no changes to collection days over the Christmas and New Year period. As usual, there will be no changes to collection days over Easter, including Good Friday or any other bank holidays.
Cllr Martin Goss, Colchester Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Waste, Environment and Transportation, said: “We want to lead Colchester into a greener future and as part of this we have moved to paperless recycling calendars. It is great that over 51% of our residents have already opted into paperless billing to reduce their impact on the environment, however, we will be asking those residents who get a paper council tax bill to download their calendar this year too.
“As this will be a big change for many residents, we have included a leaflet with this year’s council tax bill, explaining the reason why we have taken this decision and providing a quick three-step guide to downloading their calendar. The leaflet also contains information on textile recycling restarting in April, alongside a small change to our glass and cans collection. So, from April 2022 we will be saving 42,000 printed pages a year, and every year after that.”
Residents that have signed up to paperless billing will receive a link to this information on their e-bill email, alongside a link to download their calendar as usual.
Textile kerbside collections will be restarting from 26 April 2021, thanks to a partnership with Essex Textiles. A roll of new blue bags and a guide to textile recycling will be delivered to all households, by Essex Textiles, before their first collection. The main change is that textile recycling will be collected on a Blue Week, on a residents’ normal collection day.
As collection crews continue to keep up with the extra recycling that is being produced while everyone is at home more, residents will also be asked to help the council’s collections run smoothly by separating glass and cans into different boxes. This will be required from 1 June 2021. Residents can use a second green box or a similar sized box of their own, as long as it’s not cardboard.
Residents are also asked to continue to flatten large cardboard boxes that do not fit into the clear recycling bags and to rinse and squash plastic bottles.
Residents can check their recycling calendar at any time to download a recycling calendar, look up their collection day, find out whether they are on a Blue or Green Week, what should go out that week and what can and cannot be recycled and report a missed collection.
Audio copies of the recycling calendar are accessible on the Council’s website and braille copies available on request.
Page last reviewed: 3 March 2021