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Christmas and New Year refuse
collection changes
As Boxing Day and the New Year Bank Holiday fall on a Monday, there will be changes to refuse collections affecting all properties in Maidstone for two weeks between Monday 26 December until Friday 6 January.
All normal collections will be delayed by one day: Monday collections are moved to Tuesday, and so on, until Friday’s collections are rescheduled for Saturday.
All garden waste and bulky collections will be suspended while the crews assist other collection teams.
All services return to normal on Monday 9 January.
Due to the increase in tonnage all collections will run slightly slower than usual, residents are reminded that bins must be available from 6.00am and in addition, please park cars considerately so that the collection vehicles can gain access into all roads.
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Maidstone refuse collections disrupted
after icy conditions
Refuse collections in Maidstone have been hit by the snow and icy conditions that affected the borough last week. Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) has been doing all it can to collect missed collections from last week and in addition to the normal service, there have been extra crews operating across the borough.
Cllr David Burton, Leader of MBC said: “Unfortunately the icy conditions have really affected our services, for all of last week our crews were unable to start work as early as they normally would. We also had 11 staff reporting injuries from slipping on the ice and need to consider the health and safety of our crews, who do go out in all conditions and as a result lost more than 1,000 working hours. I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to all our waste collection staff for all that they do.”
MBC would like to apologise to all those affected by the disruption as we understand that not having your rubbish collected creates problems for everyone. Additional crews have been focusing on collecting missed recycling bins from last week, as the materials are very often bulky and more difficult to contain, as opposed to residual waste.
Residents with missed recycling collections, are asked to leave the bin visible and available for collection all this week. Residents with missed black bin waste collections from last week, are unlikely to have their bin emptied now. Therefore, please return it to your property and put any excess waste in secure sacks for collection next week.
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Nappies MUST be bagged and disposed in the black bin, along with the other black bags of non-recyclable waste.
Nappies in recycling cause serious contamination issues.
Just one nappy can ruin a complete 20 tonne lorry load of recycling, that affects you, your family, your friends and your neighbours.
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Extra Recycling Tips
Christmas and New Year is very busy time for waste services, we expect your waste and recycling to increase by about 20% - that’s means loads more recycling opportunities! It’s your recycling in your recycling bin, so here are some quick tips to make yours the best in town.
1. Do not put any plastic bags or plastic film in your recycling bin, all materials must be loose. This will allow you to get more recycling into the bin. When the bottles, cans etc are emptied from the vehicle, they will fall and flow on the conveyor belts, so they can be sorted before reprocessing.
2. Glass bottles and glass jars must be empty, rinse out any residue and replace the cap. The treatment centre is expecting metal and plastic caps, they aren’t a problem.
3. Plastic bottles must be empty, rinse if necessary and squash, then replace the cap. The treatment facility is expecting the bottle to be squashed and the cap isn’t a problem.
TOP TIP….. Don’t forget you can also recycle the plastic bottles which you may have used in the bathroom, such as shower gel, shampoo, bleach or cleaning spray bottles.
4. Save your large cardboard boxes- these can be used as temporary storage for your recycling if your green bin gets full.
5. Food and drinks cans must be empty, rinse them if necessary. With food cans carefully fold in the lid and lightly squash, drinks cans should also be squashed.
6. If you have a pizza box to get rid of, make sure its empty and quickly wipe off any grease. Any food left in your recycling bin, will ruin the other elements of your recycling, so place all excess food in your food bin. For tips on how to store food, reduce food waste and save money please visit https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
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Q&A. We’ve been asked can you recycle shredded paper?
Yes you can!
Just make sure you place it securely inside an envelope or cardboard box, otherwise it gets blown around the conveyor belts at the sorting depot.
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Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) is encouraging everyone to sign up to go paperless and receive their Council Tax bill via email, helping save the council postage and paper, which will be more environmentally friendly. You will need an email address to register as well as your Council tax account number and you need to be the person named on the bill.
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If you have any waste tips which others could use please let us know by emailing us at gogreengowild@maidstone.gov.uk
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