New Nottinghamshire bin collection service pushed back by a year

The deadline for Nottinghamshire councils to start offering a separate weekly collection for food waste has been pushed back by more than a year. The previous government announced nearly £300 million of funding for councils to support them in meeting the deadline of March 2026 for the rollout of a weekly kerbside food waste collection.

Yet all Nottinghamshire councils have now been given an extended deadline of October 2027, meaning people across the county are unlikely to see any changes before then. The delay has arisen because of the "complex contractual relationship" that Nottinghamshire County Council has with Veoila.

Veoila has run waste management and treatment for Nottinghamshire's seven districts and boroughs on behalf of the county council since 2006. Nottingham City Council itself is therefore set to be unaffected by the delay as it is not covered by the Veoila contract.

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Confirming news of the delay, a Bassetlaw District Council report presented to its councillors on Tuesday (November 26) said: "Due to our complex contractual relationship with the waste disposal authority and Veolia, all Nottinghamshire councils have been granted an exemption for food waste collection, giving us an extended deadline of October 2027.

"We have already received a grant for the vehicles, bins and caddies required but we have not got any further detail on the operational costs of the service. It is proposed to bring a further update report in October 2025 to update members on the latest position."

Announcing the original deadline for councils across the country in March, the previous government said weekly food collections would reduce the ten million tonnes of food wasted every year in the UK, much of which ends up in landfill. Ahead of the deadline, Nottingham City Council has already been trialling a weekly food waste collection service for over 3,000 homes in Berridge since early 2023.

The authority's trial has seen households being given an indoor, seven-litre kitchen caddy and a larger, 23-litre food waste bin to put outside for collection. Since the trial began, the Labour-run council says over 40,000kg of food waste has been sent to a recycling plant, where it has been used to create biogas and fertiliser.

Although there is a delay on the food waste collection service, Bassetlaw District Council confirmed it will meet the April 2026 deadline to provide a kerbside glass collection. The council estimates it will cost nearly £1.7 million to set up this service, which will see houses being provided with a 180-litre glass bin to be collected every six weeks.

All the plans are part of what the previous government dubbed the 'simpler recycling' programme. Claire Shrewsbury is the director of insights and innovations at WRAP, a charity that aims to reduce waste and promote reusing and recycling.

Speaking at the time of the £300 million funding being announced, Ms Shrewsbury said: "Our research shows that when food waste collections are introduced, and people see how much food goes to waste in their home, they want to do something about it. And with food waste costing a household of four around £1,000 a year, weekly collections will not only help prevent food waste in the first place, but utilise the food waste collected to generate green energy and compost."