Plans are set for St Helens’ waste and recycling collection services to make a phased return to normal starting on Monday 25th May.
The recycling and food waste collection service was suspended in March to prioritise staff resources around household waste and clinical collections.
As part of the phased return, which will be completed by 8 June, brown bin services will go back to fortnightly collections, with the final weekly brown bin collection taking place on Friday 22nd May.
The recycling and waste collection crews will be operating on the Bank Holiday of Monday 25th May, so there is no change to normal collection days that week.
Residents who have been storing excess recycling in readiness for when the service resumes can put out as much recycling as they are able to, so long as recyclables are not mixed and are properly contained, as follows:
- Cardboard can be bundled together and weighted down underneath your black box.
- Glass placed in a container or clear bag.
- Plastic, tins and other pink or white bag items placed together in a container or clear bag.
- Paper placed in a container or clear bag.
- Excess food waste should be placed in your brown bin.
How the phased return will work:
The recycling service’s return will begin on Monday 25th May, with the final weekly brown bin collection taking place on Friday 22nd May.
The easiest way to check your household’s collection schedule is to visit www.sthelens.gov.uk/collections, and enter your postcode and house number. The website has been updated to reflect the phased return.
Residents without internet access may still have their personalised collection calendar, which were previously distributed to homes across the borough. The calendars detail whether a household is a Week 1 or Week 2 property, which defines when they would normally have their brown bin and garden waste collected fortnightly, with weekly recycling collections.
Collections will revert to this schedule in three phases as follows:
Phase 1 – week commencing Monday 25th May:
- If you are Week 1 during the week commencing Monday 25th May, you will receive a brown bin collection but no recycling collection.
- If you are Week 2 during the week commencing Monday 25th May, you will receive a recycling collection only and no brown bin collection.
Phase 2 – week commencing Monday 1st June:
- Week 1 – will receive a recycling collection but no brown bin collection.
- Week 2 – will receive a brown bin collection but no recycling collection
Phase 3 – week commencing Monday 8th June:
- Week 1 and Week 2 will both receive a weekly recycling service. Both Weeks 1 and 2 will now be back in line with the normal collection calendar, for fortnightly brown bin collections and weekly recycling collections.
Councillor Andy Bowden, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said:
“I want to thank you as local residents for your patience and understanding throughout this period. Recycling is one of the most important services we provide to our community, so the decision to suspend it was not made lightly, but one we had to make to ensure that we could provide priority household and clinical waste services more frequently.
“It’s been great to see the positive local response to our crews too in these unprecedented times. Every letter, every poster, every rainbow and every passing thanks from residents to our crews has been really appreciated, and has made a massive difference to them as they make their round.”
An announcement is to be made soon about the resumption of garden waste subscription and bulky rubbish services.
