Cambridge Independent, 30th September 2024
Helping East Cambs Residents be the Best Recyclers in the Country!
Collecting waste and recycling is the most high profile service that East Cambs District Council undertakes. Ask anyone “what does your Council do” and the chances are they will say “collect the rubbish”. In fact, it is the single biggest logistical and financial exercise that we undertake at the Council, with around 350,000 bins being collected and emptied every month.
In 2026 all waste collection authorities will be required to bring in a separate weekly food waste collection service. Here in East Cambs we will be taking this opportunity to make other changes to our waste service that we think will be really popular with residents and will help us to recycle more.
East Cambs residents are already some of the best recyclers in the country – we are in the top 20 of 376 waste collection authorities in England and Wales, but we want to help residents do even better and head towards that top spot!
Around 70% of local authorities are now charging residents to collect green garden waste, but at East Cambs we still provide this service free of charge – alongside having frozen our share of Council Tax for 11 years.
From 2026 we are planning to extend this free service for residents by allowing households to have additional green waste bins free of charge. Residents will also be able to ask for additional blue recycling bins, again at no extra cost. And thanks to the previous Government’s national changes there should be less packaging in the first place and more items will be able to be recycled through the blue bin service.
We believe these measures, alongside the separate food waste collection and the rollout of black wheelie bins for residual waste, will help our district improve its recycling rate, which has been sitting stubbornly at around 58% for a while now, as well as providing a great service to our residents.
We will be carrying out a huge awareness campaign across the District in the run up to these changes, including lots of information about what goes in what bin. We are urging residents to remember that every item that goes in the black bin goes into landfill and stores up problems for future generations – the closer we edge to a 100% recycling rate, the lesser the problem for the future.
Residents who receive the normal household collection will be provided with:
• Food waste: A free 5 litre kitchen caddy and a 23 litre kerbside caddy which will be collected weekly. An initial year’s supply of caddy liners will be provided. • Dry recycling: This will continue to be collected in a blue lidded 240 litre wheeled bin every two weeks. Residents will be able to add in soft plastics such as tubs, plastic bags and cling film. For households that regularly fill their blue bin, residents can put in a request to the Council for a second bin free of charge. • Green recycling: Garden waste will continue to be collected for free in a green lidded 240 litre wheeled bin every two weeks. If required, residents can put in a request to the Council for a second bin free of charge. • Rubbish: A free 180 litre black wheeled bin will be provided for any waste that can’t be recycled and collected every two weeks – with new items being able to be recycled there is less and less that should be going into the black residual waste.
Alternative services and assisted collections will continue to be provided for residents who cannot accommodate wheeled bins or have additional needs, such as those with larger families.
Anna Bailey
East Cambs District Council, Member for the Downham Ward
Leader of the Council
Deputy Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough
Chairman of East Cambs Community Land Trust
Deputy Chair Political of Ely & East Cambridgeshire Conservative Association
