Garden waste collections to resume next week for Edinburgh residents but overflowing and heavy bins won't be collected

Garden waste collections are set to resume in Edinburgh from the start of next week but residents are being warned that overflowing and heavy bins will not be collected.

The service was suspended in April as part of the city’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, allowing the council to divert resources to other, essential waste collections and to help teams observe two metre social distancing.

The brown bin collections will resume on Monday, May 11th.

Garden waste collections will resume next week

The return of team members from absence, as well as the bedding in of new collection arrangements, means the local authority will be able to reintroduce garden waste collections.

Anyone with a garden waste permit will be compensated for the break-in service with an extension to their permit to cover this time. The council will contact customers in due course with further information.

Edinburgh City Council leader, Adam McVey, said: “We’ve made every effort to continue to run core services, including waste collections, and I’m grateful to residents for their understanding of why we’ve had to make some temporary changes under these extraordinary circumstances. It’s thanks to the enormous hard work of the council’s waste team that we’re beginning to see those services returning to normal.

“I know many residents will be keen to get out and tend to their gardens and I’d like to thank them for their patience while brown bin collections were temporarily suspended to help us respond to the coronavirus outbreak. We will be extending the time period that the current payments cover to make sure residents get the number of collections they paid for.”

Deputy leader Cammy Day said: “Recent changes have helped to protect the safety of workers and I’m pleased to see that the service has adjusted to these. The crews who pick up our bins play a crucial role, and it's thanks to their hard work that we can reintroduce brown bin collections.

“I hope residents help us to keep protecting crews’ safety by storing any excess garden waste for their next collection, as otherwise bins may become too heavy to lift.”

Residents should check their collection calendars to find out when their brown bins will next be picked up. The council is encouraging people to store any excess garden waste that won’t fit in the bin until their next collection dates - overflowing bins, heavy bins or waste placed at the side of bins won’t be collected.

The council will be writing to all those who have signed up for the garden waste service with details of its reintroduction, as well as plans for compensation for the collections that have been missed.

The local authority also reintroduced kerbside glass recycling collections last week, a service which had been suspended in March.

Special uplifts are currently suspended while Household Waste and Recycling Centres remain closed, though the council says they are working hard to reintroduce these services as soon as it is safe to do so.

Anyone with symptoms of coronavirus is encouraged to follow the guidance on how to dispose of waste correctly to help protect the safety of bin collection crews.

Further information on changes to bin collections and other services can be found on the council website