Council to Collect Recycling and Rubbish During the Night


Move gives those without outdoor space two collection slots a week


A Merton Borough bin lorry operating at night

March 13, 2023

Merton Council is introducing night time collection for refuse and recycling for some homes in the borough.

The new service will be for flats above shops with no access to outdoor space to leave out their bins. Recycling and rubbish will be picked up overnight using time-banded collections, giving residents the flexibility of two collection slots per week.

Residents with this service will now have the option to choose from one weekday and one weekend collection, and will be asked to present their bagged recycling and rubbish between 6pm and 8pm on their chosen day. It is hoped that this will leave streets cleaner during the busiest parts of the day.

To encourage an uptake in recycling, a roll of purple recycling bags has been posted to these households twice a year along with an informational leaflet.

Residents will need to provide their own general waste bags, and are encouraged to only present one bag per week in order to recycle as much as possible. The collection time bands will be enforced by Merton Council, with recycling and rubbish bags presented outside of these times treated as fly-tips, which can be prosecuted.

Scott Edgell, General Manager for Veolia South London said, “Working with Merton Council, we are pleased to deliver this innovative dedicated time-banded collection service for residents in Merton to improve street cleanliness in the borough. This will improve the efficiency of collections by incorporating them into the existing night time street cleansing resource, creating a more robust service.”

Natasha Irons, Cabinet Member for Local Environment, Green Spaces & Climate Change, “We have been listening to the views of our residents and have been working with Veolia to make even more changes to our waste service. This improved collection service will give residents living in a flat above a shop more flexibility, and help keep our streets clean”.

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