Have your say on recycling and street cleansing consultation

We want to hear your views on changes we want to make to recycling and street cleaning in the borough.

The contract we have to pick up your waste and recycling and to keep streets clean is coming to an end next spring. We have invited companies to bid for the new contract.

We want to take this opportunity to make some changes to the service you have received for the past few years. There are a few reasons for this:

1. The government is likely to change the way it asks us to provide recycling services over the next few years, to align with changes to national policy contained in the Environment Act 2021.

2. We are working together with local people to make Brent a carbon neutral borough by 2030. We know lots of you want to do your bit to live more sustainably and through the Let’s Talk Climate conversation, you told us that we could help by making it easier to do the right thing and recycle – including making it easier for you to know what can and can’t be recycled.

3. The council’s budgets have been stretched by the pandemic, rising prices, a growing population and a reduction in the funding we get from the government. We need to save money and so have to think differently about how these services are delivered in the future.

Proposed changes to recycling include separating certain materials in to weekly collections. The adjustment to the recycling service will save the council money and evidence suggests that it will also improve recycling rates within the borough.  

Councillor Krupa Sheth, Brent's Cabinet Member for Environment, said: "These changes will mean that the council can save money and keep running services that residents need the most. This is so important after drastic funding cuts from the government since 2010. We all know that times are hard at the moment and difficult decisions have to be made to improve services in the present day, whilst also having a lasting impact for future generations.

"Evidence from other councils show an increase in recycling rates when using this collection method. This is just one way of us improving in our fight against climate change.

This consultation asks for your views on the changes we are proposing, please complete the survey now.

Current process for collecting recycling

At the moment, you put all your cardboard, paper, plastic, tin cans and glass recycling into one bin and we collect it once a week.

Proposed changes

We’re proposing giving you a sack to separate out ‘fibre’ (mixed paper, cardboard, newspapers etc.) from ‘containers’ (e.g. plastic, tin cans, tubs).

We would collect the two sets of materials on alternate weeks. For example:

Week 1 - we collect your containers in your existing blue top bin.

Week 2 - we collect your fibre sack, and repeat.

You will therefore still have weekly recycling collections.

With this option, general waste would continue to be collected fortnightly and food waste weekly – remaining as they are now.

Other London boroughs have tried this and found that people recycle more – this is better for the planet and on balance would likely save the council money because it’s costly to dispose of general waste and we can sell recycling to providers.

We are also looking at introducing a new free bookable Small Items Collection Service to make it easier for you to recycle textiles, small electrical items, batteries, coffee pods and paint.

Changes to street cleansing

We are also looking at moving to an intelligence-led approach to street cleaning. This means that teams will be deployed where it is needed most, supported by rapid response teams who will be on call to clean areas when needed.

This will be a move away from the current approach that focuses on teams being deployed to different streets on a rota system, regardless of whether they need sweeping.