28-01-2025
How often should councils collect rubbish? Have your say
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.
Bristol could become the first city in England to only collect household black bin rubbish every four weeks.
The Green Party-led council says too many people are putting waste that could be recycled into their black, non-recyclables only bins, and hopes to save more than £2m a year with the proposed change.
The amount of waste Bristol City recycles has more than tripled in the past two decades, its council says, with about 45% of household waste collected as rubbish being recycled - putting it high on the league table compared to other cities.
However, in more recent years, this rate has stalled, which the council is hoping to address by discouraging people from using their black bins incorrectly.
"We are still someway behind meeting the national target of achieving 65% recycling by 2035," the council says in a consultation launched on Monday.
"Our local analysis suggests that up to half of what is currently being thrown by households into their black non-recyclable bin is material that can be recycled."
Residents and the council's political opponents have raised concerns that the move could result in more non-recyclable rubbish being fly-tipped, although the council says it has seen no evidence of that happening in areas that have switched to three-weekly collections.
An online petition calling on the council to scrap the plans, started by the Bristol Labour Party, has fetched more than 4,000 signatures so far.
It says missed bin collections are a problem that should be resolved first, and that the council also proposing a 15% rise in council tax – adding £245 to the bills of the average household, means "Bristolians shouldn't have to pay more and get less".
Bristol City Council's consultation asks residents if they would prefer moving to a three-week or four-week pattern for black bin collections, or if it should remain unchanged at every two weeks.
It will run for six weeks, after which, the local authority hopes to make a decision by spring.
But what do you think? How often should councils be collecting household rubbish, and is it being collected often enough where you live? Let us know in the polls below.
How often is your household waste bin collected? Is it frequent enough? Would you pay more council tax to ensure it was collected weekly?
Tell us why you voted the way you did and we may feature your comment in our results article on Friday.
Come back on Friday to read the results and analysis via the link below.
Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles
