Reducing waste: creating a new waste strategy
UPDATE, JANUARY 2024:
In line with our Executive's decision in March 2023, we'll be changing how we collect rubbish and recycling from most households in mid-August.
Please visit our dedicated webpages to find out more, and subscribe to our Rubbish & Recycling newsletter for more updates as the changes get nearer.
The below information, including the attached leaflets, are for historic purposes only and may no longer be up to date.
For the latest information on rubbish and recycling in Wokingham Borough, including how you can play your part, visit our website or our partners at re3.
If you want to know how or where to recycle a particular item, you can also visit the Recycle Now page for some free and helpful advice.
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Our current waste collection contract expires in 2026, which gives us the opportunity to change how we collect all rubbish and recycling.
As part of our work to become carbon neutral by 2030, and to meet the Government's expectations for all councils, we want to significantly increase our recycling rate from the current figure of 57 per cent.
To get there, we'll need to make some changes.
We're working on a waste strategy that will shape our future waste collections. We have three key priorities to consider as part of this work:
- our recycling rate and reducing waste
- resident satisfaction
- our cost
Due to the financial pressures we've been facing since 2022, we need to make changes sooner than 2026.
Phases
Phase 6: Residents' views on options
During this phase, we launched a survey asking for your views on different options for our future rubbish and recycling collections. Below are the opening lines of the survey.
Help shape your future waste and recycling collections
Due to unprecedented financial pressures, new government legislation and our climate emergency goals, we will no longer be able to continue collections as they currently are. We are having to look at whether we can make any changes before our current waste collection contract ends in 2026.
Results of the survey launched in October 2021 tell us that the environmental impact is your number one concern, that you think it's important that we all reduce the amount of waste we produce and that you are willing to recycle more. We need to put that at the heart of any changes we make to your waste collection service.
Survey results
Over 9,000 people responded. The key findings are:
- 74% like, can accept or are neutral about fortnightly rubbish and recycling collections
- 30% like, can accept or are neutral about three-weekly rubbish and recycling collections
- 78% like, can accept or are neutral about using wheeled bin for general rubbish
To see the results of the survey, see the PDF document below.