Watford bin changes coming next month

Watford Council will be:

– Introducing a weekly collection of food waste with households receiving a new 23-litre kerbside brown bin to make recycling food waste easy. (Residents should receive the new bin soon if they haven’t already.)

– Moving to a fortnightly collection of the black bin for non-recyclable waste.

– Introducing a yearly sign up service for fortnightly collections of garden waste (using existing green bins). This will cost £45, or £40 if paid by direct debit and £35 to those who are entitled to a concession.

– Keeping the weekly collection of the blue-lidded recycling bin.

The new waste and recycling collection service starts from Monday, September 7 and in most instances collection days remain the same. However for a small number of households there may be some day changes.

A council spokesperson said the authority was changing to a chargeable garden waste (green bin) service because since 2009 the money it received from central government had been cut by 70%. “This means we have had to look at how we pay for all the services we provide.

“Garden waste is a discretionary service (one we don’t have to provide) and there are many residents (those in flats/apartments or homes without gardens) who do not use the service.

“We want to keep providing the service and think it’s better, and fairer, to offer a paid for service for those who want it – the payment will go towards covering the cost of the service.”

Nearly two thirds of councils now charge for collecting garden waste

Find out more about these changes at www.watfordrecycles.com