VEOLIA, Harlow Council’s waste partner, is preparing for changes to recycling and waste collections for a majority of households in the town. Details of the new collection days are being distributed to households directly via a new service leaflet. This will be supplemented by a social media information campaign, new signs on Veolia’s vehicles and posters being put up in community venues and blocks of flats around the town.

This leaflet, which will start to go out to households from next week (31 January), will show collection days and a collection calendar until the end of March 2022. It also provides a useful reminder for residents about what can and can’t be placed in each bin, box or sack for general waste, recycling, food waste and green waste collections.

Residents can check whether their bin day will be changing at www.harlow.gov.uk/bins

There will be no reduction to the bin collection services residents receive. However, the day on which bins are collected may change and for a small number of residents the week they have their recycling and non-recycling collected may change.

Houses will continue to have their general waste bins emptied one week and their recycling bin or box being emptied the following week, as well as a weekly separate food waste collection.

Flats and homes with communal collections will continue to have weekly non-recycling and fortnightly recycling collections.

The changes, which will all be explained in the leaflet, are about improving the reliability and consistency of the service for every household. The uneven expansion of the town has led to a heavier workload in some areas, making it difficult for the crews to collect all the recycling or waste in those areas on the scheduled day. The new routes have been carefully planned to ensure each crew can cope with the number of households due to be collected on each collection day.

Residents whose next waste collection is delayed by these changes will be able to present additional branded purple bags next to their bin. These sacks will be provided in advance and accepted on the first new black bin collection day only. As always, additional recycling will be collected.

Cllr Alastair Gunn, Portfolio Holder for Governance, said:
“Since last May, Harlow Council has been actively engaging with Veolia to ensure work is delivered in accordance with the contract. That service has improved significantly in recent months. We all owe a debt of thanks to the hard-working crews who have delivered this improvement, despite significant challenges.

“To help deliver the standard of service Harlow residents rightly expect, changes to the collection rounds are required to reflect the rapid growth of the town. I know changing bin collection days is inconvenient for our residents, but Council officers and I will be working closely with Veolia to ensure any disruption is minimal and that the improvement residents expect continues to be delivered.”

Daniel Dibdin, Contract Manager for Veolia, said:
“We have worked hard to design collection rounds that will enable us to deliver a more efficient and punctual service while offering a fair and balanced workload for our collection crews. Routes have been drawn with the future expansion of the town in mind so will be able to sustainably absorb any growth of the town.

“Our teams of HGV drivers and loaders have worked tirelessly over the last 2 years to collect Harlow residents’ recycling and waste on time despite the significant challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and I would like to thank the residents for the support and appreciation they have shown to the crews on a daily basis.

All the information residents need about their collections will be included in the new leaflet which they will receive in the coming weeks.”