​Brown bin collections to continue – sign up for reminders

Collections of garden and food waste are to continue as the amount of waste increases with everyone staying at home and getting out into their garden.

The council had suspended the brown bins service for two weeks in order to focus on collecting the three other bins, before carrying out one-off garden waste collections last week and this.

Now, with staff numbers holding up and other council employees retrained to bolster the service, it has been decided to continue with the regular scheduled collections of brown bins.

Residents are being urged to sign up for email reminders of when to put their bins out – more than 40,000 households, around half the homes in Bury, have already done so. Go to www.bury.gov.uk/bincollections

Councillor Alan Quinn, cabinet member for the environment, said: “It really is easy to sign up! The day before your collection you will receive an email from the council reminding you to put out your bin before 7am and what colour bin is being collected.

“Emptying the bins during the Covid-19 crisis is one of our highest priorities, and our staff have done a magnificent job so far.

“All our one-off collections of brown bins were completed last week, and we’re on schedule to do the same this week. This is despite bins being heavier than ever.

“While the staffing situation could change quickly, we have decided to continue brown bin collections for the foreseeable future, so everyone should put their food and garden waste in the brown bin. We will be striving to make collections as per the calendars, but if we have to make changes we can easily let people know if they are signed up for email alerts.

“Our other bin collections – grey, green and blue – are continuing as normal.”

For all information on Bury’s waste collections during the Covid-19 crisis, go to www.bury.gov.uk/bincollections-coronavirus

ENDS

Press release issued: 15 April 2020.