Agenda item

            The Committee considered a report in the above-mentioned matter which included, amongst other things, an update on the introduction of the ‘Bin Safety Campaign’, which had commenced in early-August. The section of the report in that regard is set out below:

On Monday 4 August 2025, the campaign started with amber tagging (bedding in period) for 8 weeks. Collections continued as normal (i.e. overfilled bins and bins with liners were still collected) with amber warning tags placed on bins and reported by crews. Resource Advisor Teams were on the ground raising awareness.

Whilst the Report it App (RIA) was initially to be used to report and gather data on tag use and areas/rounds where the issues are more pronounced, that approach encountered operational challenges including the fact that many of the containers presented for collection do not have an identifiable address. RIA was used for non-collection instances, but amber tag usage was instead summarised based on crews reporting the number of tags issued.

For the amber period the number of tags issued over the course of the eight weeks. The percentage of collected bins which were tagged during the period was less than 2% overall.

Monday 29 September 2025, saw the commencement of the red tag phase -collecting to policy. Overfilled containers have been tagged, not collected, and instances reported through RIA. Temporary, additional, Special Collection Teams (SCTs), Resource Advisors, OSS staff and Enforcement Officers are now deployed in the targeting of areas that remain persistently non-compliant with policy.

Additional Resource Advisors have been deployed since Monday 21st July. In terms of direct communications, they covered 1,650 streets, equating to 58,000 households with each household receiving communications regarding the campaign, centred around bin safety and recycling. These temporary Resource Advisors will be maintained throughout the bin safety campaign and also to deal with some business-as-usual issues which have been highlighted during the course of the campaign and outlined below.

A temporary collections resource has been established in the form of Special Collection Teams (SCT) to support the campaign and deal with cases where the issuing of a red tag has been caused by an operational issues e.g. vehicle breakdown, rather than excess waste presented by the resident. In such instances, a crew will be dispatched to remove excess waste from the bin in order for it to be collected. From 29 Sept – 24 October (two full collection cycles) the SCT was deployed on 71 occasions. The requirement for this resource will be monitored as the campaign progresses.

The campaign has magnified some of the business-as-usual issues at certain collection sites and areas e.g. overfilled euro bins and lidless/damaged euro bins at apartments. These issues are relatively small in number and being noted in the issues log and managed on an individual case basis by the Service.

The communications and engagement on the ground is having an impact. Resource Advisor visits to conduct assessments for additional bins increased significantly as have orders for containers. For example, in the seven weeks leading up to the start of the bin safety campaign, the average number of recycling box orders per week was around 240 units. In the twelve weeks since the start of the campaign this has risen to around 418 units per week. Increases in orders and requests for service suggest a positive trend around better recycling messaging and hopefully in due course this will translate into increased recycling tonnages.

In total, 1,484 red tags were issued during the first two full collection cycles (4 weeks). Table 2, Red Phase Key Metrics, provides further breakdown of this figure. Issues to highlight are:

·             non-collection due to bin liners is a relatively minor issue in terms of number of cases reported.

·             the percentage of red-tagged bins to overall bins collected, is around 0.5%.

·             only 37 bins received their second consecutive red tag after the first two, full collection cycles.

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided and agreed that a report be submitted for consideration that would outline, within the context of the revised bins’ collection policy, the process and timescale set out for declaring an unemptied bin ‘abandoned’ and that the Council would liaise with housing management companies and other affected agencies and bodies in this matter.