Residents in Shirley said that the area was filled with the “persistent smell of decay” after waste management company Veolia failed to empty their bins.
Croydon council announced the renewal of its eight-year contract with the waste company in October last year.
The contract – which began on 1 April 2025 – is worth £21.5 million.
A spokesperson for the company told letsrecycle.com: “We would like to apologise to the small number of residents in Croydon who are experiencing delays to their collection services.
“We know that a reliable service is extremely important and our dedicated teams are working hard to ensure everything is collected on time.
“As part of the new contract, we had to re-route all kerbside collections. The change will make the service more efficient, but in the short term this has unfortunately led to some missed collections.”
A spokesperson for Croydon council added: “We are aware that some residents have experienced missed collections as part of the new waste contract changes and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.
“As part of launching the new service, we have experienced some teething issues, which we are working through. It remains a top priority for us and our waste contractor, Veolia, to make sure our residents’ bins are emptied on time and services are improved as part of the new contract.
“We ask any residents with a missed collection to report it to us online. Once reported, these are promptly logged, investigated and resolved as quickly as possible to minimise inconvenience to residents.”
Some have criticised the council’s decision to retain Veolia as its waste provider.
Labour’s Croydon mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It is just so shockingly disappointing because there are millions and millions of pounds of public money going to this company.”
Veolia said it completed over 1.25 million collections in April 2025 and that 99.5% of these were carried out on time.
The waste management company added that it cleared an average of 190 fly-tips per day.
The new contract has seen the introduction a bespoke night-time service to improve the cleanliness of Croydon’s streets. 180 tonnes of fly-tipped waste were cleared overnight in April.
The Veolia spokesperson continued: “We’d like to thank residents for their patience during this period of adjustment and ask them to continue reporting any collection or fly-tipping issues via Croydon council’s website so we can respond swiftly.”
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