According to the council, the waste service started experiencing delays in the last few weeks due to “staffing issues” and some streets are experiencing delays of one or more days.
The authority added that while the immediate staffing issues have been resolved, “with additional permanent and temporary staff being set on in the last week”, discussions are ongoing with the loading staff about working arrangements.
Now, the council said it is delaying dry recycling collections while it catches up. All available staff will be working to empty green bins for domestic waste and brown bins for garden waste only in the next two weeks. The authority runs an in-house collection service.
‘Sorry’
Cllr Stewart Swinburn, cabinet member for the environment, said: “We know that there are hundreds of streets across the borough affected by the current backlog, and we’re sorry for the impact on residents. It’s important that we try to resolve the issues we’re experiencing quickly to get collections back on track, and get waste picked up and dealt with as it should be. Suspending recycling collections is part of our normal contingency plans when the service is disrupted for any reason, but it’s not a decision we take lightly.”
Service
Residents in North East Lincolnshire have a blue bin or box for paper and card, and a grey bin for plastic bottles, cans and glass.
Paper and cardboard are sent to Palm Paper Limited where they are recycled and made into newsprint and cardboard. Other recyclables sent to Bespoke Recycling Solutions via Palm Environmental Ltd. These materials undergo sorting and are then forwarded to different locations within the UK for recycling, where they are transformed into new products.
Cllr Swinburn added: “The teams are now fully staffed, but we need to focus our resources on domestic and garden waste collections until these services have caught up. Residents can help by squashing recycling before putting it in the bin, or taking excess waste to the tip.”
Advice
Residents have been advised by the council to wait for another month or temporarily put recyclables in with their residual waste. “Any waste from the green bins is used to generate electricity at the energy from waste plant,” the council explained.
It added that household recycling can also be taken to household recycling centres in Grimsby and Immingham.
“Please do not leave unemptied recycling bins in the street, bring them back onto your property,” the council concluded.
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