Published: 23/04/2020
COPELAND Council will start its garden waste collection service on Monday, May 4.
Despite significant challenges, collections of refuse and recycling have continued as normal during the Coronavirus outbreak. While the start of garden waste collections has been delayed as the council took steps to protect these critical services, households will now receive a green waste collection every four weeks.
Mike Starkie, Mayor of Copeland, said: “We’re delighted to be in a position to start the garden waste service, which we know is highly-valued by residents.
“We took the difficult – yet necessary – decision to delay the start of the service so we could concentrate our depleted resources on critical services of collecting your household waste and recycling, while at the same time trying to understand and manage what impact the virus was having.
“I commend all our Recycling and Waste staff for their commitment and dedication during this challenging time.
“We need all of our vehicles – including those that would ordinarily be dedicated to garden waste – to deliver our waste and recycling service in order for our collections crews to adhere to the Government’s social distancing regulations. We have now secured extra vehicles, and although staffing levels remain challenging and we’re operating at around 20 per cent below capacity, we can now start collecting your garden waste.
“We appreciate your patience and understanding in the delayed start to this seasonal service, but the wellbeing of our workforce will always be our number one priority, and we’re incredibly proud of the services we have continued to deliver.”
The green recycling crews will operate on revised collection rounds each day. Half of households will receive their collection on their scheduled day over the first two weeks (w/c May 4 and 11) and the other half on their scheduled day over the second two weeks (w/c May 18 and 25) and so on.
Further details on how residents can find out which week their bin will be collected will be communicated in due course.
The council is restricting collections to the contents of residents’ brown bins only, and is unable to take any excess garden waste which cannot fit into the bin.
Mr Starkie added: “We urge you to continue being considerate to our crews. We understand you may have accumulated an excess amount of waste during the past weeks, but overloading your brown bin with abnormal amount of matter or weight will cause potential damage to the bin, but more seriously, to one of our crew. We advise residents who have excess garden waste to leave it in bags/containers, then re-fill your bin once it has been emptied.
“Our Recycling and Waste crews are doing an outstanding job in incredibly difficult circumstances, and we’re truly grateful for the support they are receiving throughout the borough. From drawings on display in windows, to kind messages on social media, to free deliveries of bacon sandwiches and pies from local caterers; your kindness means a lot to the team.”
For a list of materials that can be included within garden waste, visit www.copeland.gov.uk/garden-bin-collections, and for helpful tips on minimising garden waste, click here: https://www.copeland.gov.uk/attachments/garden-waste-tips-during-covid-19.
The council’s collections of bulky waste items will also resume on Monday, May 4. It costs £27 to have three items collected. Please call 01946 598300 or email info@copeland.gov.uk to arrange.
