However, food collections have been suspended until further notice to accommodate this and residents have been urged to home compost what they can and put the rest in their general rubbish bins.
Staff
Last week (24 March), the council announced that it had made the “difficult decision” to halt paper and card collections due to driver and loader shortages (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Buckinghamshire-based council said it was working with its contractor, Serco, to secure extra staff so that any disruption “is as short as possible”.
It was thought to be one of the first councils to do so in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the time, the council said this would enable it to “resource our most important services” and use the vehicles and loaders to support general rubbish, food and clinical collections, “which must be prioritised”.
Resumption
However, the council now appears to have changed course.
“Both mixed recycling and paper & cardboard collections will resume from Monday 30 March,” the councils website stated this week.
“We will collect a reasonable amount of extra recycling if presented loose in a reusable container, on your next schedules collection.”
Chiltern has a joint collections contract with Wycombe district council, and the two reported a joint 51.4% recycling rate in 2018/19.
Food waste
On food waste, the council’s website added: “The food waste recycling service is temporarily suspended until further notice.
“Food waste should be put into your general rubbish bin, which will be collected on your usual general rubbish collection day”
“Food waste should be put into your general rubbish bin, which will be collected on your usual general rubbish collection day.”
The statement also issued advice on home composting, which can be found here.
Buckinghamshire council
The resumption of services will be one of the last acts of Chiltern council, before the four district councils in Buckinghamshire– Aylesbury Vale, South Buckinghamshire, Wycombe and Chiltern – along with Buckinghamshire county council, all merge into a unitary authority called ‘Buckinghamshire council’.
In January 2020 the council said there will be a move to “harmonise” waste services but no plans have yet been finalised (see letsrecycle.com story) .
Along with the joint Serco contract for Chiltern and Wycombe, Ayelsbury runs an in-house service and South Buckinghamshire has a deal with Biffa. These contracts extend beyond the start of the new council.
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