Changes to your bin collections

We want to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle, which in turn will help tackle climate change. It’s a major ambition in our Corporate Plan and something we’ve been keen to do for some time now. The new Environment Act is key too. The Government is standardising recycling collections across the country, ensuring everyone can recycle the same materials at the kerbside regardless of where they live. The Government has also set challenging recycling rate targets which we hope to exceed.

Unfortunately, since our decision to introduce 1,2,3 Weekly, the Government made significant policy announcements, including the introduction of ‘Simpler Recycling’. These national policy announcements were unexpected, conflicting in policy direction, and ultimately impacted our ability to continue with our approved plans. Since then, all the Hampshire partners have been working together to agree a way forward. In April 2025, the new £50.5 million recycling facility for Hampshire was approved. This will enable residents to recycle a far greater range of materials at the kerbside. Based in Eastleigh, it is expected to be operational by the end of 2027.

Ultimately, we will be collecting more materials at the kerbside. Weekly food waste collections will start on 13 October 2025, and you will be sent more information about this soon. You’ll be provided with two food waste caddies – a smaller one for the kitchen and a larger one for the collection day.  The caddy can contain all kinds of food waste including kitchen scraps, leftovers, food that has gone mouldy, fruit and vegetable peelings etc. For those who share their wheeled bins e.g. flats with a bin store, a communal food waste bin will be provided.  For the moment, we are unable to confirm how the other recyclable items (plastic pots, tubs and trays, cartons, glass bottles and jars and aluminium foil) will be collected. Garden waste collection days will remain unchanged for those who subscribe.

We will be working with residents and providing support. We will help those who have specific issues or concerns, such as space at home.

We understand that there can be difficulties with shared or communal bins so we will be working with each managing agent/landlord etc. to agree the best solution for each one. We will also be working with residents to support them through the change to the new collection services. Our aim is to provide our new services to as many residents as possible.

We are looking to collect as many materials at the kerbside as possible. We will update these pages when we can confirm we can collect new, additional materials.

Items most commonly fly tipped are bulky items or trade waste, neither of which are collected as part of our collection service. It is not anticipated that fly tipping will increase, and this is not the experience of other local authorities who already operate similar collection services.

We currently have a network of over 100 local recycling centres (LRCs).  We will continue to operate these as we introduce the new collection services, and we will monitor their use. No decision has yet been taken on the future of our LRC network.