Green bin collections suspended from Monday 13 December

Greater Cambridge Shared Waste News release – Wednesday 8 December 2021

Green bin collections suspended from Monday 13 December

Green bin collections across Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire are being suspended from Monday (13 December) because of the number of drivers and loaders absent – particularly with Coronavirus or self-isolating.

Crews are working hard to complete rounds that are scheduled for the rest of this week but after Monday (13 December), green bin collections will be suspended and are planned to resume on Wednesday 12 January 2022 in line with the previously published Christmas schedule.

In addition to staff shortages due to COVID-related reasons (sickness and self-isolation), there is a continued national shortage of HGV drivers as well as a lack of agency staff because of demand for them elsewhere such as in supermarkets and at online delivery services.


The suspension will allow crews to concentrate on emptying black and blue bins during the festive period when more waste and recycling is traditionally generated. Back in the summer, when the green bin service was threatened, the Councils gave advance warning that collections could be disrupted due to the pandemic causing staff shortages. This has now been realised.

Steps had already been taken to try and deal with staff shortages. Since September, Greater Cambridge Shared Waste has appointed 11 new bin crew members during a near-constant recruitment campaign. Six existing refuse loaders are also currently going through a driver training programme. However, with 30 members of waste operations staff absent today (Wednesday 8 December) it is no longer possible to continue planning to empty green bins from next week.

Many other councils, both in Cambridgeshire and across the UK, have already been forced to suspend their garden waste collection service.

For those residents that are expecting their green bins to be emptied this week, the message is to put your bin out as normal. If it is not collected on your usual collection day, leave it out, and it will be emptied by the afternoon of Tuesday 14 December.

During the green bin suspension, the advice for garden waste is to store this in the green bin or in a plie in the garden, or home compost, until collections resume. If necessary, it can be taken to the household recycling centres at Milton or Thriplow. As always, residents are being encouraged to waste as little food as possible, so they have less to throw away. For this period only, residents who do have food waste are being asked to put it into the black bin. Changes are now being made to update the online bin collection calendars at www.scambs.gov.uk/recycling-and-bins and www.cambridge.gov.uk/bins-recycling-and-rubbish to reflect the suspension of green bin collections.

Head of Greater Cambridge Shared Waste, Bode Esan, said: “I really hope that residents will continue supporting our crews and understand that the decision to suspend green bin collections is not one that we have taken lightly. We have done everything we possibly can to keep all our collection services going, by working hard to cover for absences as well as recruiting new staff. However, we have reached the point where we can’t do this any longer and must prioritise emptying black and blue bins. Please help out our hard-working crews by storing any remaining garden waste and leaves from this autumn and minimise food waste  as much as possible over the coming weeks and the festive period in particular.”

Ends

For further information contact Tom Horn in South Cambridgeshire District Council’s communications team on tom.horn@scambs.gov.uk or 07704 072 548

Further information:

At present, the collections will resume on Wednesday 12 January 2022 in line with the Christmas collection date changes. As the green bin collections would have turned turn to their usual 4-weekly cycle from w/b 27 December/3 January, the suspension is adding an extra two weeks to this, so residents will only be missing one green bin collection throughout the planned suspension. Residents are advised to check the websites for updates and for their collection days via the online calendar which have been updated to reflect this. If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

For additional information, below is a copy of the bin collection dates changes over the festive period.

Usual collection dayRevised collection day
Fri 24 Dec 2021No change
Mon 27 Dec 2021Wed 29 Dec 2021
Tue 28 Dec 2021Thu 30 Dec 2021
Wed 29 Dec 2021Fri 31 Dec 2021
Thu 30 Dec 2021Tue 04 Jan 2022
Fri 31 Dec 2021Wed 05 Jan 2022
Mon 03 Jan 2022Thu 06 Jan 2022
Tue 04 Jan 2022Fri 07 Jan 2022
Wed 05 Jan 2022Sat 08 Jan 2022
Thu 06 Jan 2022Mon 10 Jan 2022
Fri 07 Jan 2022Tue 11 Jan 2022
Mon 10 Jan 2022Wed 12 Jan 2022
Tue 11 Jan 2022Thu 13 Jan 2022
Wed 12 Jan 2022Fri 14 Jan 2022
Thu 13 Jan 2022Sat 15 Jan 2022
Fri 14 Jan 2022Mon 17 Jan 2022
Mon 17 Jan 2022Tue 18 Jan 2022
Tue 18 Jan 2022Wed 19 Jan 2022
Wed 19 Jan 2022Thu 20 Jan 2022
Thu 20 Jan 2022Fri 21 Jan 2022
Fri 21 Jan 2022Sat 22 Jan 2022
Mon 24 Jan 2022Back to normal