READING Borough Council has announced that it is set to make changes to bin collection schedules next month.
While there will be no changes to the frequency of service, all households will see a shift in either their collection day, week, or both.
Recycling and residual waste collections still be collected on alternate weeks and food waste still collected weekly.
The changes follow a review of existing collection schedules that has helped identify ways in which the service can operate more effectively and efficiently.
The council explains the move is intended to make the service more resilient, as only recycling or residual waste will be collected across Reading on any given day, instead of being split between the two.
This means it will be easier to quickly cover any unforeseen vehicle or staffing issues which might previously have resulted in incomplete rounds.
The move will also expand service capacity to be able to provide new kerbside collections, such as glass.
Glass collection will not be implemented immediately, however.
It will also increase capacity to meet housing growth and a bigger population.Some residents will see a change in their week of collection with their grey and red bins switching along with potentially a new collection day of the week.
Other residents will keep their usual collection week, but experience a change in collection day.
At the initial launch of the new collection rounds, some streets will experience a three-week gap in one of their waste collections following the start of the new schedules.
The residents that this will affect will be able to present any excess recycling or general waste that accumulates as a result on their next scheduled recycling or general waste collection date.
The new rounds begin borough-wide on Monday, June 9.
The new scheduled waste and recycling collection dates will be available online soon, and in three weeks every household will receive a hard copy bin calendar outlining collection dates from June 2025 to May 2026.
There is also an app called Scrapp that can be downloaded where residents can enter their address details and easily set up weekly reminders for the night before their collection day.
Karen Rowland, Lead Councillor for Environmental Services and Community Safety, said: “Your kerbside waste and recycling collection is one of the few services delivered by the Council which affects absolutely everyone.
“That is why it is so important that every resident familiarises themselves with day and week collection changes coming in across the borough in good time for Monday, June 9.
“The changes will help us deliver a more effective, efficient and resilient service going forward, as well as future-proofing the service so that it is agile enough to respond to future changes such as the kerbside collection of glass, which we know many residents have been eager for.
She explained: “Whilst a change of this magnitude is guaranteed to come with some initial teething issues, we are asking residents to help us and help themselves by checking in advance what these changes will mean for their own bin collection days.
“People will be able to look the new dates up soon on our website, look out in the post for their individual A4 poster of collection days later in May, and download re3’s Scrapp app which will give you weekly reminders in advance so you don’t miss your new day whilst getting used to the changes.
“We thank residents in advance for their support whilst we introduce these important changes which will result in a more effective service for everyone.”
Commenting on the upcoming bin changes Councillor Rob White (Green Party, Park Ward) leader of the main opposition party on Reading Council says: “Over the last few years residents have raised numerous problems with us about missed and delayed bin collections.
“This causes waste to backup, fly tipping and feeds rats the size of cats. Greens welcome the idea of changing to a more resilient system although we recognise in the short term this will cause problems.
“Let us know how things go and we will keep up the pressure to improve bin collections. We are especially keen to see the council collecting glass and soft plastic on the doorstep across the town as soon as possible.”
