Proposed changes to waste collections

The law has changed. The Environment Act and Simpler Recycling requires collection of recycling materials from households, and not from bring banks, so all councils must start collecting a wider range of recyclable material from the kerbside and provide a weekly food recycling collection from all households. This is not specific to Braintree District Council.

The council also wants to divert as much waste as possible from landfill, or incineration, and capture more of this for recycling to support our climate aspirations. It strives to meet the targets nationally and, as part of the new Waste Strategy for Essex, to recycle at least 65% of household waste by 2035. It also aims to reduce the cost of waste collection and disposal.

After extensive modelling, 5 options remained from the December Cabinet decision, which are detailed in the report to Cabinet in May 2025. Although there would be set-up costs to purchase new bins, the recommendation to Cabinet is the only option that provided a reduction in cost from the current baseline. It is also looking to achieve improved service quality and environmental outcomes.

No. Additional bins for recycling will be provided free of charge to households.

An 8-week public consultation ran from 6th Jan – 2nd March 2025:

• 7,847 responses to the consultation were received.
• 19 face-to-face events throughout
• Staff directly engaged with 830 members of the public.
• 991 leaflets and cards handed out.
• Targeted paid social media was used to reach demographically under-represented groups.
• A waste vehicle, with screens, was used around the district to promote engagement
• A range of external display banners, town centre notice boards and posters displayed at satellite locations
• An external analysis company was engaged to analyse the consultation feedback independently
• The responses are representative of the district by ward.

A decision was made by Cabinet on 27th May 2025.

Analysis of the waste in grey bins showed that on average 30% was food waste. There was also a significant amount of waste that could have been recycled. The changes are to improve recycling by providing more capacity for recycling materials as we will be collecting more from households – including glass and plastic film.

This will reduce the amount of waste in the grey bins, which will not need to be collected as often. Food waste is collected weekly and therefore this will help residents to use their food waste collections and not place that waste in the grey bins.

We must leave enough time to deliver all the bins to households, across the whole district, before the new service starts. All residents will be able to access the new service at the same time – we are not rolling the changes out in phases. Communications will be provided throughout to provide clear timelines and support residents with the changes.

Staff have undertaken direct assessments of properties, using criteria set out in the revised Household Waste & Recycling Collections Policy. 44,000 properties have been visited and assessed (as at 21/05/25) and, currently, approximately 13% of properties would be unable to have the additional wheeled bins and would be classed as needing a ‘non-standard waste collection service’ as set out in the policy.

Where a recycling bin is not an option, up to 4 x 55ltr stackable boxes (with lids to keep contents dry) will be provided per bin. For refuse, 52 black sacks will be provided annually.

All residents will be written to later in 2025 to confirm the outcome of their assessment, confirming if they will receive a standard or non-standard waste collection service.

The letter to residents will set out more details about how to view the detail behind their assessment. Where residents feel that information is inaccurate, there will be a process to inform the Council and, where necessary, provide evidence. A review will then be undertaken and the resident informed of the outcome.

Communicating all aspects of the changes will be clearly shared with residents, councillors and other partners. Information will be provided in a clear, simple manner. It will be shared in various forms and on various platforms i.e. website, social media and also in paper form, throughout the months leading up to the new service commencing.

A calendar will be produced to support residents. In year one, a paper copy will be provided to all residents.

12% of people, who answered in the consultation, stated that they would continue to use the bring banks, so bring banks will not be removed immediately. Their use will be reviewed, to see if the space could be used to help collect other materials, like textiles or small electrical items.

Most biodegradable and smelly waste will be removed from the grey bin and collected weekly, for example, food, which needs to be placed in the food caddies provided. This will keep the grey bin clean and reduce the risk of attracting vermin. Residents can choose to neutralise odours using bicarbonate of soda, other deodorisers or essential oils, if needed. More receptacles are being provided, so waste should be better contained and reduce the risk of vermin.

There is a process to apply for increased capacity in the revised Household Waste & Recycling Collections Policy. This may mean a larger bin or an additional bin, depending on the specific requirements. Similarly, where a household feels their bin provides too much capacity, they will be able to apply for a smaller bin.

The changes mean that a wider range of material will be collected from households at the kerbside, reducing the need for residents to take their waste to bring banks. There is no evidence to suggest that fly-tipping levels will increase but this will be monitored, and enforcement action taken, where needed.

Residents who have difficulty differentiating between colours can contact the council for support and advice. It is likely that a sticker will be provided to help differentiate between the wheeled bins and boxes. The council will also be able to offer advice in relation to other visual impairments.

Residents are already able to apply for Assisted Collections and this service will remain. Not all the bins need to be put out at the same time, which should help but, where these changes do create a concern, residents can apply for an Assisted Collection.

Those who already have an assisted collection will continue to receive this service. Officers may make contact to ensure that this is still required. Anyone who feels that they may require assistance can apply to the Council.

The proposed changes may result in increased food waste volumes going into the caddies rather than being placed in the grey bin, which has been taken into account. There should not be any increase in the amount of general waste that households produce but the improved recycling service will move more of it into recycling and out of landfill or incineration.

The clinical waste collection service will not change for residents.

The revised Household Waste & Recycling Collections Policy provides residents, on request, with an offer to collect Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHPs) from the kerbside. These would be collected not more than 2-weeks apart, using sacks of an appropriate quality. This service will also provide more capacity to those families.

The council will be reviewing this and share more information in due course.

The £4.25m implementation cost will be fully funded through a mix of grants, reserves, and general capital resources, as detailed in the report. There is no borrowing required to fund the changes.

The new collection service is expected to provide a £206,000 (9%) annual saving on the current net budget for refuse and recycling. This is compared to other options modelled which, whilst may have provided a reduced initial set up cost, would have increased the annual budget cost by almost £1m.

The new collection service estimate does not include financial benefits from improved recycling by residents, any increase in recycling tonnages could result in an increased income for the Council and improve the £206,000 saving on the net budget.

A full breakdown of the financial impact of the proposed changes to the waste service is available in item 7 of the Cabinet report from the 27th May 2025 on our website.

Additional wheeled bins and boxes will be delivered to residents from February 2026 onwards for a period of 14 weeks (approximately). While we cannot provide residents with exact delivery dates now, we hope to be able to provide estimated delivery dates for areas in the new year.

Braintree District Council collects Council Tax from residents, however, it only keeps approximately 10 percent of this. The remainder goes to Essex Police, Essex County Fire and Rescue, Essex County Council and to Parish/Town Councils. Braintree District Council uses its share of Council Tax, together with other sources of funding, to provide over 100 services to residents and businesses, including its waste service.

The new waste service is due to commence on 1st June 2026 and will offer an enhanced service to residents, with a greater range of recyclable material collected from the kerbside. Not only will this deliver an improved waste collection service to residents, but the agreed model ensures the most cost-effective approach to meeting new government recycling targets. Find out more information on how your Council Tax is used.

As part of our procurement process for the new recycling bins we are seeking to achieve a level of recycled content within the new bins. At this time, we cannot confirm the exact recycled content amount until this process has concluded.

All animal waste should be placed in grey bins. Vegetarian animal waste could be composted at home, but it should not be included in your garden waste bin for collection. Find details of what can be put in your garden waste and other bins. Other items like puppy pads should also be placed in your grey bin and will not be eligible as part of our AHP collection. The criteria for our AHP collection service will be set out in the coming months and will not include animal sanitary products.

Our new Household Waste and Recycling Collections Policy provides for a standard approach for the majority of households within the district, where this is not suitable for the minority of households we will be in touch regarding the alternative receptacles that will be provided. This is based on criteria set out within the policy and does not allow for residents to opt-in or out.

While we take the concerns of our residents very seriously, we believe the comprehensive non-statutory public consultation we held demonstrates the council’s commitment to ensuring that fairness was at the forefront of the process. The council ran an 8-week consultation exercise from 6th January 2025 to 2nd March 2025.

All residents and stakeholders were consulted with at the formative stage of the proposals. The consultation gave sufficient information to support the proposals through a full and wide-ranging consultation exercise. The council had regard to the form of the consultation and material was made available on-line and in hard copy. Additional methods appropriate to the consultation were also adopted including district wide face-to-face events and a digital media campaign. The council is aware of residents differing views across the community.

The views of and specific responses received from residents and stakeholders during the course of the consultation were considered at the outcome of the consultation and before the council took its decision.

We will be communicating with residents in the coming months with more detail about the new service, including how the responses to the consultation have shaped the new policy. In the meantime, the Cabinet report includes detailed analysis of the consultation feedback.

We will be writing to all residents before June 2026 and providing them with a paper calendar of their new collection schedule.

For clarity we have included an example collection schedule below. Please note that this is not representative of your own exact collection schedule and is just an example.

• Week 1 - Food waste | grey bin | garden waste
• Week 2 - Food waste | paper and card bin
• Week 3 - Food waste | garden waste
• Week 4 - Food waste | grey bin | metal, plastic and glass bin
• Week 5 - Food waste | garden waste
• Week 6 - Food waste | paper and card bin
• Week 7 - Food waste | grey bin | garden waste
• Week 8 - Food waste | metal, plastic and glass bin

As of the 1 June 2026 waste collections to flats will also be changing. These changes include:

• Providing internal food waste caddies to flats ahead of the 1 June 2026
• Weekly food waste collections from 1 June 2026
• Communal kerbside collections from 1 June 2026 which include:
  • Glass, metal and plastic recycling
  • Paper and card recycling