Green bin collections cancelled – residents encouraged to compost at home

Green bin collections, due to resume this month, have been cancelled for the time being.

City of York Council has postponed the start of garden waste collections to prioritise household waste and recycling collections.

A council spokesperson said: “These steps are being taken because of extraordinary pressures on frontline services during the outbreak of Covid-19 and a significantly reduced workforce. 

“This decision will free up more frontline crews and vehicles to focus on collecting recycling and household waste in a safe way for frontline staff.”

The situation will be regularly reviewed with the collections resuming as soon as possible.

‘Keep gardening’

Collecting household waste is classed as an essential service under a public health laws, but not so collecting garden waste. 

The council is encouraging residents to compost their garden waste at home – there’s advice on how to do this here.

Cllr Paula Widdowson, executive member for climate change, said: 

• This isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly and this doesn’t mean we don’t want residents to garden.

  We are encouraging residents to recycle and compost where possible and to support this, we have published advice for easy composting at home.

  In some cases, this is more important than ever to keep active – particularly when self-isolating.

She said if people are unable to compost, “then we’re asking residents to store their garden waste when possible, and we will collect it at a later date”.

St Nick’s is still undertaking recycling and garden waste collections for around 2,000 city centre properties.

Both Hazel Court and Towthorpe household waste recycling centres remain closed.

Residents who have purchased an additional garden waste bin, as part of the subscription service, will be given a refund.