Leeds City Council pledges no extra waste bins or fines in recycling shakeup

Leeds City Council has pledged households across the district won't be saddled with additional bins, as part of a nationwide shakeup of recycling.

It comes as the local authority confirms a trial of food waste collections is launched in Wetherby and Collingham, with plans to roll out a similar scheme to the rest of the city and surrounding areas.

The trial will utilise existing brown bins for food waste alongside garden waste, with plans for year-round collections of these bins.

Households taking part in the trial will be provided with a kitchen food waste caddy to support the new fortnightly collection service. As food waste collected during the trial will be processed nearby, Wetherby and Collingham were chosen for the initial phase.

Leeds currently operates the largest free garden waste collection service in the UK, with more than 31,000 tonnes collected annually from 220,000 households across the city - there are plans to use this infrastructure as part of the trial.

This comes amid a nationwide shakeup of recycling services, with local authorities being told to collect additional types of waste for recycling.

Councillor Mohammed Rafique, executive member for climate, energy, environment, and green space, said:

“We are aware of information and rumours circulating regarding an additional fourth bin and new fines possibly being introduced. We would like to stress neither of these elements are true for Leeds."

“We remain fully committed to keeping to the current three-bin approach to keep things as simple as possible for our residents while continuing to encourage recycling through green bins and the household waste recycling centres.

“Developing our existing brown bin service for food waste collections along with garden waste is an interesting and exciting development, so we look forward to the new trial service starting shortly to see how effective it is.”

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