Waste contractor Veolia takes on south Buckinghamshire

From Monday 1 November, waste in the south Buckinghamshire area will be collected by Veolia, who have already been collecting waste and recycling in the Chiltern and High Wycombe areas since September last year. The company is taking over the council contract for the south Buckinghamshire area from former provider Biffa. The rest of the council’s waste services, in the Aylesbury Vale area in the north of the county, are provided by an in-house council team.

Other changes include arrangements for paper and cardboard recycling. Residents in south Buckinghamshire have already been notified that from 1 November they no longer need to separate paper from cardboard material to recycle as they did previously. Both can be put together into a single box, which has been delivered to residents, for collection. Old collection boxes that households have previously used for paper can also be filled and put out for collection.

For residents in the Chiltern and Wycombe areas there will be a slight change in how quickly they need to report it if their bin has been missed on its usual collection day, bringing consistency with other areas of the county. It will now need to be within 24 hours of the missed collection (or end of the day on Monday for collections missed on a Friday).

As part of the new arrangements, the standard issue new wheeled bins are changing from 240 litres to 180 litres. This brings the south into line with the rest of the county, where residents have been using this size of bin for some time without difficulty and it has been shown to increase the amount of waste that people recycle. Residents can continue to use their current larger bin, but as older bins are replaced they will be changed to the new, smaller size.

Peter Strachan, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and the Environment, explained: “When Buckinghamshire Council formed in April 2020, waste collection was just one of the services that we brought together from across four different districts. To make the new council more efficient, we are working to bring consistency to our one combined service but with minimal impact.

“Residents in the south Buckinghamshire area may notice a different logo on the vehicle when their waste and recycling is collected, but we want to keep disruption to an absolute minimum. Our residents do a fantastic job of recycling, but as more and more of the things we use every day can be recycled, it is important that we adapt our waste collections.”

Andrew Reidy, Veolia’s General Manager for North London and the Home Counties, said: “We are delighted to be extending our services to more Buckinghamshire residents and look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with the council. Together, and with our new operational, technological and community-based initiatives to support local projects, we will make waste services cleaner, greener and more efficient.”

Visit www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk for more information on the council’s waste collection services and recycling.