East Staffordshire Borough Council has taken the decision to suspend its garden waste collection service following an increasing number of employee absences, predominantly as a result of the coronavirus.
Protecting the health and wellbeing of both the community and staff is its biggest priority and whilst the Council makes every effort to minimise disruption, the number of refuse workers unavailable will impact on the service in the short term.
As a result, the Council has taken a decision to suspend all brown bin (garden waste) collections from Thursday 13th January 2022. This will allow the refuse team to focus efforts and resources on blue bin (dry recycling) and grey bin (residual waste) collections.
The Council cannot rule out further reductions in the level of service, but at this stage, there is no impact on the frequency of collections or any change to the date of collections. Residents should continue to present their blue and grey bins on alternate weeks on their usual collection day.
Councillor Ray Faulkner, Deputy Leader for Environment and Housing, said: “Unfortunately and despite our best efforts to maintain a full collection service, the recent spate of absences has led to us having to make this difficult decision. Suspending brown bin collections will allow our refuse team to focus on collecting dry recycling and residual waste, which is key to protecting the health of our residents and we will look to resurrect the full service as soon as possible. Therefore, I’d ask residents to keep an eye on our website and our social media platforms for further information.”
Information about home composting may also be found at http://www.eaststaffsbc.gov.uk/bins-rubbish-recycling/composting
The County Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres remain open and will accept garden waste. Further details may be found at Recycling centres (tips): https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Waste-and-recycling/recyclingcentres/RecyclingCentres-overview.aspx The Council would like to apologise for any inconvenience.