The council is preparing to switch from weekly bin rounds to fortnightly because, it said, food waste collections meant that people were putting less general rubbish in their wheelie bins.
A survey has gone up on the Brighton and Hove City Council website seeking feedback and input from the public.
It said: “We’re considering moving to less frequent collections for household rubbish so we’d like to understand how you use your recycling bins, how easy it is to recycle at home and what might help you recycle more confidently.”
The survey follows a decision taken by the council’s cabinet in January to start the process of reducing the weekly refuse collections to fortnightly. The frequency of communal bin collections is expected to remain unchanged.
It also follows an extension last year of the types of plastic collected by the council for recycling to include pots, tubs and trays.
More recently, in March, the communal bin areas in the centre of Brighton became the last to have food waste collections.
The introduction of food waste collections is the result of national government policy, aimed at further reducing the amount of rubbish going into people’s bins.
A report to the council’s cabinet meeting in January estimated that more than 5,000 tonnes of food waste a year could be collected city-wide – a weekly average of 740 grams per household.
The council’s survey said that, so far, 1,700 tonnes of food waste had been kept separate from general waste and turned into compost.
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for environmental services and net zero, said in January that Brighton and Hove was one of just 62 councils out of 317 still collecting rubbish weekly.
He said that some councils had bin rounds for general waste as infrequently as every three or four weeks.
The survey asks residents if they recycle all they can and if they are confident that they know what can be recycled.
It also asks whether people are aware that they can recycle pots, tubs and trays and if they know how to dispose of food waste.
In addition, the survey asks how people can be helped to improve their recycling rates and how much rubbish is in their household bin each week now that there are more recycling options.
The More Recycling Less Waste survey is on the council’s website. It closes on Saturday 16 May.
Will my council tax be every other month then?
Classic bants. I am a bit concerned that some areas just aren’t compliant enough to transition though, despite the multiple case studies saying biweekly works well.
Thinking about January, there wasn’t a collection for two weeks and my area saw the main bins filled, recycling ended up being filled with normal waste, and there was overfill left on the side.
And that’s in a location where I think recycling seems to be well done. I’m not convinced.
Well it would help If they actually put more recycling bins out in the city centre. They are always overflowing in Hove, most buildings don’t even have a recycling bin on my street and the only one we have halfway down the road is always full.
Same we are along Sackfield Rd recycling bin collection missed most weeks pavements shrewn with rubbish it’s depressing. With all the new build around hove the population has nearly doubled in 20 years with more high rises being added every year. B&H must be collecting a staggering amount in council tax?
Only covers about 20% of the budget.
Well I’ve yet to hear anything about food waste recycling and haven’t received any equipment!
My neighbours are similarly ignored. The plastics and paper recycling seems to have mysteriously moved to monthly without any consultation or notice. Fortunately it doesn’t impact me too much but the Councils lack of communication is deafening.
Obviously this Labour majority Council have decided they are too popular and will attract too many votes come next year’s local election.
Bins are full after a week, people then put bags next to bins and the seagulls then spread the contents about the street. If we change collections to every 2 weeks i think we will have a rat infested stinking mess… Rubbish sitting around for 2 weeks is not hygienic. 7
You should also consider that ad-hoc collections in between these, as they are now. Although if that is happening often, that’s a question of capacity.
People can always start recycling properly and using the food bins, then they won’t have any capacity issues in their green bins will they… I think the point is Brighton is one of the only places that still has weekly in the UK and has one of the lowest recycling rates in the country so it’s a logical move.
Yeah, I’m cautious, but I can see the logic there. I think it’s also important to note that communal bins aren’t changing. There are a lot of people who think that their communal waste bins are moving to twice-a-week, when they are not.
Bins are full after a week, people then put bags next to bins and the seagulls then spread the contents about the street. If we change collections to every 2 weeks i think we will have a rat infested stinking mess… Rubbish sitting around for 2 weeks is not hygienic.
My food waste never gets collected, sick and tired of putting it out just to then put it back in the green wheelie bin.
Go to Hanover the community bins are always overflowing, I believe someone on a social media site stated “anyone’s bins that are overrate delivered to the town hall”
Communal bins along sackfield road are always overflowing with waste missed collection every week pavements along sackfield Rd are full of rubbish waste. It’s depressing to walk down.
I remember a few years back, during one of many bin strikes, an enterprising chap created some look alike Brighton Council info posters with the addresses of senior Green Councillors. They kindly offered to store their constituents domestic waste until the strike was over. I do believe many people took them up on their kind offer.
Is the enterprising chap in the room with you now?
Regrettably no.
I do find it fairly ironic that the worst party performatively for recycling have been the Green party.
I find it ironic that the conservative government ruined the economy and left the EU personally that one is up there.
So when you miss my already full bin again, I’ll have to wait another 2 weeks for you actually come and empty it. Given we’re already 5 months into the year and out of 18 collections so far you’ve already missed 6 of them!! All this is gonna do is have a knock on effect to the state of the pavements. Its bad enough that people have to squeeze past cars parked fully on pavements, now we’ll have to navigate that while not tripping over bags of rubbish and litter thats been spread about due to foxes.
No, silly, you report it as a missed collection, and one comes around later that day or the next day, as everyone else does.
Not for the 6 missed collections it didnt. We were told to bring it in and put it back out for next collection.
I wish they would be that efficient, sadly theyre not. Even rang to chase it up as rubbish bags had been ripped apart by wildlife and spread across road and pavement. Was told nothing they can do about rubbish collection, but they could send a crew to clean the street…. this actually didnt even happen.
I don’t understand. You were told they couldn’t do anything about rubbish, but were sending a crew out to deal with it? It is the same truck?
Is it the same same truck? Do street cleaning teams come in refuse trucks? Either way no one showed up.
Unless it’s REALLY bad, they do carry a broom on their trucks and pick up the loose stuff! Funnily enough, there’s one at the moment on my street collecting the communal bins. I do make the effort to say thanks to them whenever I pass by. It’s an important job that not many people want to do after all.
Iam writing to express my strong opposition to the proposal of moving to fortnightly general waste collections in Brighton & Hove, specifically regarding the impact on Patcham.While the “Simpler Recycling” food waste scheme aims to reduce waste, the reality on the ground in Patcham is an ongoing and severe rat infestation. Moving to fortnightly collections will inevitably lead to:Public Health Risks: Overflowing bins are already a catalyst for the rodent problem in our ward. Doubling the time waste sits in bins will escalate this from a nuisance to a health crisis.Infrastructure Failure: The current communal and individual bins are frequently damaged or left with open lids. They are not “rat-proof” in their current state.Missed Collection Backlog: Our area already suffers from frequent missed collections. Under a fortnightly system, a single missed pick-up means waste sits for an unacceptable four weeks.I urge the council to pause any transition to fortnightly cycles until the existing rodent population in Patcham is brought under control and a guarantee of 100% collection reliability is met.I look forward to hearing how the council plans to mitigate these specific risks for Patcham residents before any changes are implemented.
Psy more get less
Libour working against working tax payers
Does that mean I’ll pay less council tax as there less collections doubt it
You’re aware that council tax barely covers 20% of the budget?
Food collections have been quite infrequent at our end of Brighton- this needs to be improved first. Also reporting a missed bin collection never seems to have any impact and no catch up is done.
That’ll be a good question for your Ward Councillor to tackle, if that’s the case. Have you contacted them?
We have two small recycling bins between 15 flats we have one refuse bin between 3 flats asked for more promised more never arrived it just means more fly tipping which means the money the council will save on collections will be spent on flytipping collections