Changes to Birmingham bin collections as city council provides update

From April next year, the council will begin its transition to fortnightly collection of residual waste on a phased basis, alongside the introduction of weekly food waste.

The council says this will increase the efficiency of collecting different waste materials and meet the Government obligations set out in the Environmental Act 2021.

To support the delivery of these new service changes, the council is investing in a new fleet of recycling lorries and food waste vehicles. Some of the investment will come from a grant given by DEFRA. 

The waste collection IT system will be replaced and upgraded to improve real-time communications between our operations centre and individual drivers.

What’s been said about the changes?

Cllr Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “Making these improvements will provide the residents of Birmingham with a better waste collection service that is in line with other councils.

“I know some residents are concerned about moving to a fortnightly residual waste service, but this will not be introduced until we have the food waste collections, meaning people will have less general waste. There will be a phased introduction and we will be communicating all the changes to residents.

“We need to increase our recycling rates in the city so we are proposing small pilots across the city to increase the recycling of paper and card, with the introduction of a second recycling bin to replace the current pod. This will increase the storage capacity for paper and card in households.”