South Kesteven District Council confirms it will not consider moving to monthly waste collections

Councillors have reassured residents they are not considering a move to monthly black bin collections.

At South Kesteven District Council’s environment overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday morning (December 10), Coun Paul Wood (Independent) sought assurances from cabinet members that no such plans were under consideration locally, referencing the recent media coverage.

The issue has gained national attention after Labour dropped statutory guidance requiring councils to provide fortnightly residual waste collections.

In Bristol, plans to reduce black bin collections to once every four weeks, aimed at cutting costs for the city council, were revealed in a leaked document. Recycling collections could also be reduced to “less frequently than weekly” under an option to use a single wheelie bin for all reusable materials.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the document read: “Through changes in regulation and increasing operational, inflation and investment costs, our waste and recycling service is facing an additional bill of £5 million to £9 million per year.

“Without cost reductions we may need to reduce services and performance standards. This amount will be reduced if we can recycle more and waste less.”

Cabinet member for environment and waste, Coun Rhys Baker (Green Party), confirmed: “We are not considering monthly waste collections.”

In South Kesteven, a purple-lidded bin was added to the collection round earlier this year. Black bins are collected fortnightly, and the silver bin for plastic and glass recycling and purple-lidded bins for paper and cardboard are collected on the other weeks - each on a monthly rotation.

Instead of the changes proposed elsewhere, Coun Baker noted that the council is choosing to focus on delivering the new waste depot on the former Fenland Foods site on Turnpike Close, Grantham.

The new site will enable the council to deliver a new online food waste scheme, set to begin in April 2026, which cannot be implemented at the existing depot on Alexandra Road.

He added: “We are focused at this point on delivering the depot and transferring everything across and food waste collections.

“We have got enough on our plates without tinkering around the edges with something highly controversial which won’t actually at this point save the council any money.

“It doesn’t mean it can’t be considered 20 years down the line, we will always have to sit within government regulations. But, there are no plans for this council to go to monthly waste collections.”

You can find out when each bin is collected in your street on the South Kesteven District Council website.

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