Preston residents preparing for bin collection shake-up

Preston residents can now check how – and whether – their bin collection days will change as part of the biggest shake-up of the city’s waste service in almost 15 years.

Preston City Council has redesigned its rubbish pick-up rounds so that all domestic properties have their bins collected on the same day each week.

The new arrangements will come into force in the authority’s patch from Monday 20th April – and not all households will see a switch to their current collection day as a result of the overhaul.

However, the time that the bins are collected could change for any address – even if the day itself remains the same.

For that reason, residents are being reminded that all bins need to be left out for collection by 7am. The LDRS has been that told householders should not to presume their collection time will be unchanged, as they risk missing the pick-up altogether if it has moved to earlier in the day and they have not put their bins out beforehand.

Collections will still alternate each week between grey bins for general rubbish and green for recycling – but properties will no longer be visited by bin wagons on different days within that fortnightly cycle.

The shift coincides with introduction of weekly food waste collections in the city – and marks the most significant change to collection rounds since 2012.

Meanwhile, two separate recycling collections will be introduced – at different times of the same day for the same household – one for each of the bins provided for recyclable waste.   At the moment, properties have the contents of their red-lidded and yellow-lidded green bins – paper and cardboard in the former and glass, metal and some plastics in the latter – collected in one go by the same vehicle.

The staggering of the recycling collections is another reason it is vital all bins are left out by 7am.

Residents can check the single day all their bins will be collected at:  https://www.preston.gov.uk/binday.   The address checker will show collection days throughout April – enabling householders to identify any change from the 20th of the month.

The revamp is in response to the building of more than 10,000 new homes in Preston since the last bin collection schedule was drawn up – with many of the properties springing up in the north west of the city.

Mark Taylor, interim director of environment and property at Preston City Council, said of the collection changes: “Preston has experienced significant growth in new housing across the city. This growth means we occasionally have to make significant changes to collection days and areas.

“From Monday 20th April, these changes will be introduced alongside the rollout of food waste collections and will help streamline existing collection rounds. The frequency of collections will remain the same, but residents will benefit from having their waste collected on the same day each week, something that is not currently the case for all households.

“Every resident will receive details about the new changes and their updated collection days.”

As well as providing the online address checker, the city council will be delivering updated collection calendars and guidance to households in the coming weeks.