Your waste and recycling service is changing

In May, Woking Borough Council awarded Biffa Waste Services a new eight-year contract to bring about further improvements to the Borough's waste and recycling service and enable local people to recycle even more of their household rubbish.

The new contract incorporates many of the suggestions for improvement that were made by local people during a Boroughwide consultation last summer. Headline results from this exercise revealed that people were largely happy with the service but they felt that some changes could be made to help them recycle both kitchen and garden waste.

From September 2009, when the contract begins, Biffa and Woking Borough Council will start to introduce some of the key changes to the service which include:

  • standardising bin collection days so that the whole Borough places its blue bins out on one week and the blacks bins out the next. This will mean a change of collection schedule for some residents from September 2009.

  • kerbside collection of household batteries to divert environment-damaging waste from landfill. In September 2009 residents will be given a small envelope to help them recycle household batteries.

During the autumn, changes to the garden waste service will be introduced to offer all householders the chance to opt-in to a subscription-based service. Those who choose to use the service will be asked to pay an annual fee to receive a special wheeled bin or re-usable sacks, up to the capacity of a wheeled bin, for their garden waste. This will be collected from the kerbside every two weeks.

Perhaps the most significant change - the weekly collection of food waste - is likely to be introduced early in the New Year to give Biffa time to purchase new collection vehicles and distribute new collection caddies and bins to the majority of households in the Borough.

Once all of the changes are implemented, the Council is hopeful that the Borough will be focussed on achieving a recycling rate of over 50%. Its ultimate goal is to reach 60% as quickly as possible.

Further information on all service changes was distributed to households at the beginning of September 2009, in advance of the changes being introduced.

Any enquiries should be directed to Woking Borough Council on 01483 755855.