Bins arriving in readiness for rollout
We’re about to start taking delivery of more than 60,000 black wheeled rubbish bins, which we’ll be issuing to households across the borough from Monday, 20 May to the end of July.
This is part of the upcoming changes to our waste collections, which will start on Monday, 12 August.
You can’t use your new bin straight away, as we won’t empty it until collections change from 12 August. For now, please keep putting your rubbish out in the blue bags.
When your bin arrives, we strongly recommend marking it with your house number to ensure it is returned to you when the new collections begin.
Each wheeled rubbish bin will come sealed with tape and will have a recyclable cardboard hanger reminding you not to use it yet.
Get ready now for the changes
From 12 August, we’ll empty your new black bin rubbish every two weeks and we’ll also collect recycling from the existing green bags every two weeks. You can pick up free green bags if you need them.
Your recycling will be collected on weeks when your rubbish isn’t collected. Food waste collections are staying weekly so make full use of these and pick up a free food bin if you don’t have one.
Your collection day won’t be changing, but some households will start the new service with a rubbish collection and others will start with recycling.
Nearer the changeover, we’ll send a leaflet to every household with a collection calendar showing your weekly schedule. You’ll also be able to check your collections online.
The leaflet will explain how to put your rubbish and recycling out each week, and you’ll need to follow this simple advice or your waste might not be collected.
A refilling success
Maya's Refillables in Wokingham town centre has recently celebrated its second anniversary with flying colours.
The local business has saved 4.7 tons of plastic (equivalent to the weight of three cars) from landfill by refilling around 95,000 containers, since it first started as a market stall in Wokingham town, Woodley and Yateley in 2019.
Maya's Refillables opened its door in 2022 at Peach Place, after the owner Maya Gheorghe found that the demand for refilling, instead of buying new, had been growing in our area.
The shop now offers 400 plastic-free products, including refillable personal care items like body wash and shampoos, cleaners like washing-up and laundry liquids, and food such as rice, pasta, grains, oils, cereals, herbs and spices.
Go the extra mile to reduce waste
Maya also plays a part in a number of community projects to reduce waste and promote a sustainable lifestyle.
The latest is the newly opened Wokingham Repair Café, where she is a key partner. The repair café had a successful inaugural session last month, saving 876kg of carbon emissions on the items fixed.
Over the past two years, she has been supporting Ali's Recycling for the Local Community, by having collection boxes in her shop for people to drop off hard-to-recycle items like ink cartridges, electric toothbrush heads and make-up bottles. Around 1,200 kg of waste has been collected so far.
Reach out to local businesses
"Helping other businesses become more sustainable is also really important," said Maya.
She has recently started supplying plastic-free alternatives to local businesses, including independent shops like Stables Specialty Coffee in Arborfield and Ola Coffee in Twyford.
As she believes, "Making eco-swaps is easy and doesn't have to be expensive." Maya hopes to encourage more people, individuals and businesses alike, to reduce the use of plastic and help the environment.
Visit a repair café near you
The repair café community in our borough is thriving. Over the past two years, four repair cafés have opened their doors to residents, giving hundreds of once broken or faulty items a new lease of life.
All repair cafés are run by volunteers, who have only one mission - saving things from going to waste.
Check the dates of the upcoming repair café sessions, if you need to have anything fixed:
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