Waste and recycling collection day changes on the way for Bristol households

From Monday 28 November, collection days for some residents waste and recycling services will be changing.

As part of the new waste contract with May Gurney, which started on 1 November, the collection routes are being streamlined to make them more efficient for the crews and to get ready for new services being introduced from the end of January 2012.

Around 60% of households will be given a new collection day for their waste and recycling and residents should already have been informed of a day change in a leaflet and calendar delivered to all households. The council is also doubling the number of staff in its customer services centre to ensure it is equipped for extra calls from the public.

Neal Willis, Regional Operations Director for May Gurney Environmental Services said: Overall, were very pleased with how the first month of service has gone. Kerbside collections have run smoothly with only one or two minor teething problems, as youd expect with any new contract of this size.

We have distributed leaflets to every home to inform residents of the changes to the collection days being introduced this week, however,  we appreciate that a small number of people may still put their bins out on the wrong date. If you do forget to put your waste out on your new collection date in the first week, you can put it out as extra waste when you have your next wheelie bin collection and we will collect it.

Cabinet member for waste services, Cllr Gary Hopkins, said: May Gurney crews have worked hard to ensure residents experienced no change to their waste and recycling collections during the changeover from the previous service provider and, on the whole, they have managed it very effectively with only a handful of queries from residents.

Now that May Gurney are settled in, they can start to introduce their changes that will help make this the flagship contract we promised residents - one that saves money, delivers improved services and helps us move closer to our goals of zero waste to landfill, reducing our overall household waste and greater recycling.

If any residents are still unsure whether they are getting a new collection day, they should contact our customer service centre, where we have more than doubled the number of call staff from now until the end of January to ensure residents have easy access to all the information they need.

Residents can phone the customer services centre on 0117 922 2100 Monday-Friday between 8am - 6pm (apart from 2.30 - 4pm on Wednesdays when it is closed for staff training).

New services, including plastics and Tetra Pak collections, will begin to be introduced to residents from the end of January 2012 in a four-part phased roll out. Residents will receive further details about these new services just before they begin in their area.

For more information about waste and recycling, visit www.bristol.gov.uk/recycling.