Answers to your questions about waste and recycling

We have received questions and freedom of information requests on the topics below.

Our waste collections contract

Suez Recycling and Recovery UK provide the council’s household recycling and waste collections services in South Gloucestershire under an 8 year contract which took effect from August 2025.

They are responsible for collecting recycling and waste from households which has been sorted by residents using the recycling boxes, collection bags and bins provided.

The management of the 4 household waste recycling centres (Sort It centres) and 2 waste transfer stations in South Gloucestershire has been brought in-house and they are now council operated. 

The new contract, worth around £120 million, delivers improvements such as more accurate monitoring of day-to-day operations using upgraded in-cab systems for better live reporting and communication with the crews.

It will also help us to improve the area’s recycling rate and reduce residents’ environmental impact.

Key features of the new arrangements include:

• household kerbside collections continue to be run by Suez
• redesigned collection routes
• 3-weekly black bin collections from May 2026
• extension of the soft plastics collections trial
• food waste collections from more households in flats
• the Sort It recycling centres brought in-house

Changes to your recycling and bin collection days

Most people’s recycling and bin collection days have changed from Monday 4 August 2025 because of the new contract arrangements.

Black bins are still collected fortnightly, as are green bins for garden waste. Recycling and food waste collections are still weekly. It is the day of the week they are all collected that has changed for most households.

For some, their green bin is now collected on a different day to their black bin.

This is the first major reroute in a number of years. The new routes take into account new housing developments and changes to the road network.

These changes are needed to make collection routes more efficient and provide better value for money.

We have introduced a new council app to help you check your collection dates and set up reminder notifications.

In July we sent a recycling and waste services guide in the post to all households with the details of the changes, and wrote directly to all garden waste service subscribers.

3-weekly black bin collections coming in 2026

Councillors agreed in March 2024 to introduce 3-weekly black bin collections in 2026. This followed an extensive public consultation.

The change is needed to save money, reduce carbon emissions and encourage people to recycle more.

It will only affect black bin collections. Recycling and food waste collections will stay weekly, and garden waste collections will stay fortnightly.

Arrangements for flats with communal bins is being reviewed separately, but it is expected that a small number of blocks of flats will remain fortnightly.

We will continue to offer additional services to help households who need more support, including: 

• larger families 
• people with health conditions
• anyone needing help to put out their waste and recycling
• discounted rates on additional services for people receiving certain benefits

We will introduce a free, fortnightly subscription collection service for disposable nappies, ostomy bags and absorbent hygiene products such as continence pads and sanitary pads.

Advice will be available for those with more than the average amount of general (non-recyclable) waste.

Concerns over bin space and fly tipping

Some people have raised concerns that changing to 3-weekly collections may lead to an increase in fly tipping. However, this has not been seen in other council areas where it has already been introduced.

We know from the bin audits we carry out that around half of South Gloucestershire households currently do not completely fill up their black bins every fortnight.

In addition, fly tipping is a crime. Most people are actively against it and therefore unlikely to dispose of their waste illegally.

Our 4 Sort It recycling centres are open 7 days a week for when people have waste they cannot dispose of through the waste collection service.

If you are concerned you won’t have enough room in your black bin for 3 weeks’ worth of waste, there are 2 simple changes you can make that can make a big difference:

1. Do not put soft plastics in your black bin.

Soft plastics such as wrappers and plastic bags can be recycled now at many local supermarkets. By spring 2026 everyone in South Gloucestershire will be able to recycle them from home.

2. Do not put food waste in your black bin.

It can be added to your garden compost pile if you have one, or it can go in your food waste bin. Not having food waste in your black bin will also mean it will not smell or attract flies or pests.

Based on what we know from our annual black bin audits, these 2 changes alone could cut the contents of your black bin nearly in half.

If after recycling everything possible you still struggle with fitting everything in we can complete an assessment with you. You may be eligible for an extra black bin.

Why the change has been agreed

To reduce costs

Disposal of black bin waste costs £7 million a year.

Moving to 3-weekly collections is expected to save at least £1 million per year.

To increase recycling rates

We must meet the government’s recycling target for household waste of 65% by 2035.

Our current recycling rate is below 60% and has fallen in recent years.  

To reduce carbon emissions

We are committed to act to reduce the area’s contributions to climate change.

Reducing what goes in our black bins means less waste is burnt or sent to landfill, both of which generate carbon emissions.

Recycling saves energy, reduces carbon release and reduces the need to use raw materials, helping to protect natural resources.

Moving to 3-weekly collections cuts down collection vehicle emissions and causes less road congestion,  leading to an estimated saving of 1,870 tCO2-eq., contributing towards our goals for net zero.

Read our Resource and Waste Strategy, which we consulted with residents on in 2020.

Council tax and waste services

Costs to run council services such as waste management are continuing to increase. We need to find ways to close an expected annual budget shortfall of between £2.7million and £4.7million.

Council tax covers a wide range of services, not just waste collection. Only £7.50 of every £100 goes to providing 4 Sort It recycling centres, recycling and black bin collections, and the disposal costs of waste.

For a household in a band D property paying £1,752.11 in council tax, this means £116.17 of that goes towards waste and recycling services.

Much more is spent on things like care for the elderly and supporting vulnerable young people – there is more information about how council tax and business rates are used to deliver vital services on our Council tax explained – where your money goes page.

We continue to look for ways to help balance the cost of waste management such as the introduction of 3-weekly black bin collections in 2026.

Sort It recycling centre booking

The government now requires all local authorities to regulate the disposal of household DIY waste.

To meet this requirement from March 2025 we introduced a booking system for our recycling centres.

Find out more and how to book: Book a visit to a recycling centre.

Increasing recycling

Our current recycling rate for South Gloucestershire is 56.6%.

While this is one of the highest recycling rates in England, we know that around a third of the contents of the average black bin in our area could be recycled through existing kerbside collections.

Also, new opportunities to recycle more materials such as soft plastics are now widely available in supermarkets and will soon be rolled out to more homes in South Gloucestershire.

When new and extended kerbside recycling is fully rolled out, up to two thirds of what is currently being placed in the average black bin will be recyclable from home.

Soft plastics

We are taking part in the FPF FlexCollect project, a national scheme to pilot the kerbside collection and recycling of plastic bags and wrapping.

Currently approximately 20 per cent of homes in South Gloucestershire are taking part in the trial. It was launched in October 2022.

Since the pilot began more than 19 tonnes of soft plastics equivalent to over 7,000 140-litre black bins have been collected in South Gloucestershire. Those materials have been sent to a number of UK based recycling facilities to test different recycling methods.

We are aiming to roll out the service to all households by spring 2026.

Read more about our soft plastics trial.