Croydon residents will get a better, faster and more local waste and recycling service from next week under council plans.
Council staff and contractors who currently work in independent teams, from street cleaners to binmen, will join forces from 1 June to cover eight local patches.
Each local team will have an operations manager overseeing general waste collection, recycling, street cleaning and flytipping enforcement officers. The eight teams will have one or several trucks on patrol in each area at all times.
The new structure’s benefits include:
• Faster responses to issues called in via the council’s contact centre
• Better-planned routes through more information on how much waste each street produces
• Improved co-ordination, such as timing collections with street cleaning
• Teams can help local clear-ups under the Don’t Mess With Croydon – Take Pride campaign
“Our officers already take huge pride in keeping our borough clean, so giving them a local patch means an even better service for our residents.
“We already know which areas of Croydon recycle more or produce more general waste, but our local teams will also spot and respond faster to overflowing bins, missed collections or dumped rubbish.”
Councillor Stuart Collins, deputy leader – Clean Green Croydon
The kind of waste collected by the council is not changing, but the council hopes to drive up recycling rates by having more information about how much is recycled or thrown away.
The number of weekly bin or recycling collections will stay the same, but some collection days may change. The council is writing to all affected residents by the start date on 1 June.
To help the council and contractor Veolia introduce the new structure, residents are being urged to:
• Make sure black bag waste and recyclables are on the edge of your property by 6am on collection day.
• Do not put your landfill waste and recycling out on non-collection days as this may cause additional fly-tipping in your area.
• Recycle more – unrecycled waste can lead to overflowing bins, fly-tipping and littering.
• Use your local reuse and recycle centre, see www.croydon.gov.uk/recycling
• Book a bulky waste collection for any larger items or white goods www.croydon.gov.uk/bulkywaste
• Report a missed collection using My Account. Log in or register via www.croydon.gov.uk/myaccount
For more information, visit www.croydon.gov.uk/villageapproach
