Why make changes?
We collect and dispose of waste from 118,000 homes across Central Bedfordshire at a cost of around £14 million a year. That amounts to around 7% of our budget, and 9% of your Council Tax, which makes it one of the largest areas of expenditure for us.
Our current bin collection contracts are coming to an end in the Autumn 2019, so it’s the ideal opportunity to review the service to explore options to increase efficiency and value for money; maximise the use of technology; and increase levels of recycling.
Harmonise the service
The current service is not uniform across all areas because we inherited the contracts from the previous South Beds District Council and Mid Beds District Council back in 2009 when Central Bedfordshire Council was formed. Currently food waste is only being collected in the north and, for green waste, bags are provided in the north and bins in the south. We want to provide all residents across Central Bedfordshire with the same service through the new contract.
As well as ensuring Council Tax payers receive an equal waste service across the area we will also make some savings through economies of scale from the working across the whole area rather than in two distinct ‘district’ areas.
Recycling costs less
Not only is recycling the right thing to do for environmental reasons, it is also the most cost-effective way of disposing of our waste.
Disposing of recycling is around four times cheaper than the cost of disposing of black bin waste. Therefore recycling makes the most of tax payers' money.
Recycling targets
Our current recycling rate is 46%.
The national target is to 50% by 2020.
Further targets of 55% by 2025, 60% by 2030 and 65% by 2035 are likely to be introduced.
Despite efforts to promote and encourage recycling, we will not achieve these targets unless new recycling services are introduced.
Residents will be encouraged and supported to make every effort to recycle as much as possible.