Residents urged to do their bit for waste and recycling services

Lancaster City Council is asking its residents to do their bit to protect its crews and help them stay on top of its waste and recycling collection services during the current coronavirus crisis.

With more household waste than normal being generated as a result of people staying at home, we’re urging householders to be mindful of the additional pressure being placed on our frontline staff and take some simple steps to help keep our collection services rolling.  

This includes making sure that all bins and boxes including garden waste bins are out on the kerbside by 7am on collection day. 

Non-recyclable household waste (landfill)

Most of your household waste can now be recycled so residents shouldn’t have any problems storing non-recyclable household items in their grey wheelie bins. 

If you do have excess non-recyclable waste, we are currently allowing householders to leave up to two black bin bags of household waste at the side of their wheelie bin for collection. Anything in excess of this will not be collected.  The extra waste not going in your wheelie bin must be double bagged to protect our crews.

Extra grey wheelie bins

Requests for additional grey bins have suspended until further notice to ensure that our collection services can be maintained.

Excess recyclable household waste

If your recycling boxes are full to the brim then you are doing a fantastic job recycling.

Remember to ‘wash and squash’ your tins and plastics to reduce the amount of space they take up in your boxes. 

Additional recyclable items can be put out for collection in a variety of containers including storage boxes, strong cardboard boxes, buckets or double bagged in carrier bags.  Make sure you separate your excess items just as you would normally store them in your recycling boxes.

If you have excess glass, you should ensure that bottles and jars etc remain stored in the recycling boxes provided.

Do not use black bin bags for excess recyclables as the crews will assume it is excess non-recyclable waste and refuse to pick it up.  

As a reminder, recyclable household items now include most plastics such yogurt pots, margarine tubs, and meat, fruit and vegetable trays of any shape or colour, along with their lids. In fact, anything with a number 1, 2 or 5 within the recycling triangle can go into your recycling bin. You’ll find a full list on the council’s website at lancaster.gov.uk/recycling

Important -  used tissues and kitchen paper are not recyclable and should be placed in your general household waste bin.

Garden waste

Garden waste will only be collected if it is contained in a green wheelie bin and once you have subscribed to our garden waste collection service.  

If you haven’t subscribed to the 2020/21 service which started on 1st April and you’re going to be busy in the garden it’s not too late to sign up - visit www.lancaster.gov.uk/gardenwaste 

You can also subscribe to an extra wheeled bin if you need more capacity.

Textiles

As you can imagine, our collection vehicles are fuller than normal at the current time so we are asking people not to leave textiles our for collection at this time.

Bulky household waste

Following the recent closure of Lancashire County Council’s household waste recycling centres, the council is asking householders to avoid large DIY projects, clear outs and other waste generating activities unless they have space to store the waste until they can dispose of it legitimately.

Alternatively, you could contact the council’s bulky household waste disposal service, Bulky Matters to dispose of your larger items. 

The service continues to run with the following restrictions:

• Operational Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm
• Collections of goods will be from outside of the property only (end of driveway).
• Staff will not enter the property at this time and will maintain a 2m self-distancing protocol from all residents

To arrange a collection, call customer services on 01524 582491. More information on the service can be found at lancaster.gov.uk/bulkymatters

Don’t forget that being involved in dumping waste illegally (fly tipping) is a serious criminal offence which can carry a hefty fine or prison sentence of up to five years. 

Trade waste and recycling collection service

If you’re a customer of the council’s trade waste and recycling collection service and you wish to have your collections suspended at this time, you should contact the council on 01524 582415 or email tradewaste@lancaster.gov.uk as soon as possible. This will ensure that payments for the service and visits to your business are cancelled until further notice.

For updates on all council services during the coronavirus outbreak and other useful advice and guidance, visit lancaster.gov.uk/coronavirus

Last updated: 16 April 2020