English Councils Reshape Household Waste Services

Birmingham City Council is proposing to begin the next phase of its waste-service overhaul in February, extending fortnightly household rubbish collections alongside a second recycling bin and weekly food-waste pickups. The recommended model performed better in pilot trials, recording a 33.06% recycling rate compared with about 27% for the alternative and costing an estimated £14.02 million less annually, though opposition councillors have argued weekly rubbish collections should remain. The council also wants to restore bulky-waste collections to help curb fly-tipping, but has not set a return date and says strike-related resource constraints currently limit the service to one crew.