Earlier Bin Collections

All household kerbside collections - recycling, rubbish and garden waste - will begin at 6am, rather than the previous 7am, from Monday 1 February.

The aim is to step up staff and customer safety while ensuring waste services are maintained despite the continued disruptive pressure of COVID-19 on Somerset's kerbside collections.

Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) and its contractors take a precautionary approach to cut contact and risk. For example, crews work in tightly-controlled team bubbles; the whole bubble isolates if a member tests positive, is in contact with someone who tests positive, or is symptomatic.

This means far higher staff absences than expected, plus unpredictable daily changes as teams isolate or return to work, and crews are reallocated to maintain services. In the first three weeks of January, COVID-19 contributed to nearly 800 lost staff days, compared to just 58 lost days during December.

Extra steps help keep everyone safer

Collections from 6am will further reduce contact between team bubbles through widely spaced set-offs and allow an early start on work that may take longer or be incomplete if staff are absent.

SWP has appreciated how residents understood and supported early starts in the past, such as the 2019 heatwave, and to avoid specific traffic hold-ups.

Initially for the month of February, householders will need to put all their recycling, rubbish and garden waste out by 6am, or do so the night before.

Crews will not immediately return for some missed collections. This will be avoided if possible, but staff absences will sometimes make it impractical to go back for missed recycling or garden waste the following day. Residents will then need to take containers in until their next collection.

Personal waste from people who are infected, have symptoms or live with someone with symptoms, should be double bagged, stored securely, and kept separate from other waste within the home for at least 72 hours (three days) before being put in the rubbish outside the house for collection. Please wash or sanitise hands before and after handling waste containers, disinfect container handles, and keep social distance from waste staff.

Thank you for your help in keeping us all safer.