Edinburgh city council says the changes have been made to ensure waste collection services are maintained and to protect the health of frontline workers and residents.
Council leader Adam McVey said: “We’re working extremely hard to continue providing essential services to people living here, and our waste collection crews are doing a fantastic job.
“However, their health is of utmost importance so it’s important that we adapt service provision to protect their safety.
“This latest change will allow us to keep collecting most bins while giving teams the space to practise social distancing, limiting the potential spread of the coronavirus.
“We’re working extremely hard to continue providing essential services to people living here”
“I want to reassure the public that we’re doing everything we can to keep essential services running as close to normal as possible while looking out for the needs of the people who work for us.”
Where previously there would have been two bin loaders and a driver to a cab, there will be one driver and a single loader.
The measures will also see kerbside garden waste collections suspended from 7 April, which the council says will help prioritise resources while enabling waste collection crews to observe social distancing guidelines.
Crews
The move follows publication of advice on COVID-19 and the waste sector from the UK’s Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum, which states consideration should be given to reducing the number of people who share cab space (see letsrecycle.com story).
The council says this means it will need increased resources – to be procured from a third-party provider, as well as reassigning staff from cleansing teams – to carry out the collection of kerbside and communal general waste, food recycling and dry mixed recycling.
Additional measures to safeguard waste and cleansing workers’ health see the increased provision of hand sanitiser supplies, hot water handwashing points in a number of vehicles, the washing down of lorries at the end of shifts and efforts to encourage social distancing in depots.
The council says it is making every effort to promote social distancing and remind staff of government guidance.
Derby
Similarly, Derby city council has reduced the number of people in each RCV and has announced it has suspended food and garden waste collections amid attempts to follow government guidelines on social distancing.
However, it says it is to maintain its recycling collections.
The council also announced additional crews from the private sector had been working alongside its usual Streetpride team to collect recycling waste from 31 March.
Guidelines
Councillor Jonathan Smale, Derby’s Conservative cabinet member for communities, neighbourhoods and Streetpride, said: “Like you and I, our teams have families, loved ones and colleagues that they want to keep safe, and a number of our workforce have had to self-isolate in line with government guidance, which has meant we have had significantly fewer staff to collect bins and drive our vehicles.
“In addition to these staffing issues, government has issued strong guidance on social distancing, and we’re left with a situation where we’ve had to reduce the number of people in each vehicle.
“On a normal day, we send around 32 crews to collect Derby’s rubbish and recycling.
“Each vehicle has a driver and two or three collectors, and this is simply no longer possible resulting in a reduction to our services.
Aberdeen
Meanwhile, Aberdeen city council has warned collections may be a little slower than usual as it enacts its own ways of protecting staff by ensuring social distancing in the cabs of RCVs.
Instead of the normal practice of a driver and two crew riding in a cab, the council says only one crew member will travel with the driver and in some cases a second crew member will follow in a separate van, as is the case in Edinburgh.
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