Tameside Council Announce Tameside Bin Changes

15 Dec 2021

Tameside Council has announced changes to the bin collections as part of budget cuts.

The announcement has been made following public consultations made earlier this year.

It has been indicated that changes are being made to blue and black bin recycling collections across Tameside to help protect limited funds for vital services.

The main changes, which are due to come into effect from 31 January 2022, involve moving black bin (glass, plastic bottles and cans) and blue (paper and cardboard) bin recycling collections from every two weeks to every three weeks, in line with many other areas of Greater Manchester.

Green (non recycling) bin and brown (food and garden waste) bin collections will remain the same.

The policy change also involves introducing a charge for replacement bins.

It has been revealed that Tameside Council’s Executive Cabinet today (15 December 2021) decided to make the changes following a successful pilot in three trial areas in the borough and after reviewing feedback from extensive consultations both with households within the pilot and the wider public.

Continuing pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, increased demand for services and government cuts of almost £200 million over the last 10 years, mean the council is faced with having to make savings of another £23 million this financial year to balance the budget for 2021-22.

It is estimated that by introducing a charge of £25.63 per bin for replacement/additional recycling bins, it will generate/save £190k a year, while reverting back to collections every three weeks (as they were several years ago) rather than two for blue and black recycling bins, it is estimated the service can save £370k a year. Both these strategies will help safeguard vital services such as supporting vulnerable children and adults.

Tameside Council Executive Member Cllr Allison Gwynne said: “We, like every other council in the country, are under enormous pressure to make financial savings while also delivering services that are valued the most by residents and in particular supporting and protecting vulnerable children and adults. Doing nothing to make efficiencies is not an option.

“The changes we’ve agreed have been shown to work very well operationally in the pilot areas – with no negative impact on collections – but we have also listened to residents’ feedback and included provision for extra bin capacity for larger households and a fee waiver for new bins in certain circumstances.

“The approach of reducing collection frequency of recycling bins to provide the efficient use of resources brings Tameside in line with numerous other Greater Manchester authorities, where again it has proven to work well.

“Ultimately, the changes will make a huge difference in saving limited funds and this is an opportunity for everyone to get involved and positively help shape a sustainable and effective service for the future.”

The council will be writing to all households to notify them of the changes in the coming weeks and it will provide new bin collection calendars to make it easy for households to follow the new collection frequency regime.

It has been advised that in the meantime, households should stick to their current collection arrangements.

For details of any collection changes over the Christmas and New Year period see here.

Image credit Tameside Council