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Rubbish & Recycling

Wokingham Borough Connect

Check your bin collection days

From this week until Friday 12 January, bin collection days for all households have been adjusted temporarily to allow our crews to spend time with their families during this festive season. 

Remember to check the revised collection schedule before putting out your waste. 

Please note:

• Our crew will be working this Saturday (30 December) with an earlier start at 5:30am. Put out your waste the night before to avoid being missed, if it's due to be collected.
• There will be no collection on New Year's Day (1 January).

Revised collection schedule

From 25 December to 29 December

From 1 to 5 January

From 8 to 12 January

New waste collections to make essential savings

In our last issue, we talked about how the new waste collections would help us make essential savings to help protect vital services for those who need them most. 

You may not need all our services now, but you or a loved one may need them one day - and we’ve got to prioritise them as we work to avoid financial disaster.

We’re considering lots of savings across various services, as well as changing how we work and looking at our own practices to become as efficient as we can.

Any active consultations on savings will be published on our Engage Wokingham Borough page, where you’ll be able to find out more and share your views.

We’re also urging our residents to lend their voices to our campaign for a fairer funding model, which would relieve the unfair burden placed on local taxpayers.

Our residents pay a higher percentage of service costs than anywhere else, about 85 per cent, because we get less Government funding than any other unitary authority.

No easy answers to the problem

The cost of everything we buy or build is increasing, as are annual costs like energy bills - just as they are for residents. Sadly, inflation hits us as hard as anybody else.

For example, when we reduced the number of blue rubbish bags we provided from 80 to 54 a year, this didn’t save us a penny because the cost of producing each bag had increased so much.

The borough’s population is increasing and the new residents all pay council tax but they also need services, so our costs go up as well as our income.

We collect up to £40,000 from developers for every new home built in the borough, which goes towards new schools, roads, community and leisure centres to meet residents’ needs.

We can’t put this towards the ongoing cost of services like waste collection, and it wouldn’t make sense anyway as we need to provide communities with suitable infrastructure.

Top tips on glass recycling

We're likely to cook more than normal over the festive period, and will be having a bunch of empty wine or drink bottles, glass jars for sauces, pickles or so in our kitchen.

Reuse comes first

Before recycling them, consider if they can be reused - like for storing bulk-bought food, holding water for your paintbrushes, making your own soap dispensers, or turning them into fairy light lanterns.

Do a quick search online and you will find loads of creative ideas on how to reuse glass bottles or jars. 

Glass is 100 per cent recyclable

Glass can be endlessly recycled to turn into new products without losing its quality.

It has many environmental benefits as well. For each tonne of glass recycled, about 580kg of carbon emission is saved throughout the supply chain, air pollution is reduced by 20 per cent and water pollution cut by 50 per cent.

So, don't bin your unwanted glass bottles or jars. Here are some top tips on glass recycling:

• Empty and quickly rinse them, so they are free from food
• Put lids or caps back on, so they won't get lost during the sorting process as they can be recycled separately 
• Remove corks, as they can be home composted
• No need to remove labels
• Don't leave empties on the floor beside the bottle banks, as they may not be picked up and recycled

Please note

Some glass items can't be recycled, such as glass cookware like Pyrex, microwave plates; drinking glasses; vases; mirrors; light bulbs and tube.

If you have to bin any broken glassware, remember to wrap it with unwanted paper or cloth, so they won't cut through your blue bag and hurt our crews or passers-by.

Book your charity Christmas tree collection

Book by this Sunday 31 December to have your Christmas tree collected for recycling while supporting charitable causes. 

Sue Ryder's Christmas Treecycling programme helps residents in the Thames Valley area recycle their real trees in return for a donation that supports the charity in providing compassionate end-of-life care and bereavement support. 

Once booked, volunteers from the charity will come to collect your real Christmas tree from Tuesday 9 January to Friday 12 January.

Please note Sue Ryder collection has a tree limit of 10 feet and all decorations and pots should be removed beforehand.