BIN days could change for some households to make room for new food waste collections, a report has revealed.
The Tamworth and Lichfield Joint Waste Committee will hear an update on proposals at a meeting this week.
The new food collections will see households receive an internal seven-litre caddy and a supply of linters. They will then place the filled liners into outside 23 litre bin caddies.
But a report said there was a need to “optimise the rounds” in waste collection to accommodate the additional service.
If approved, the changes would mean more than 1,600 seeing changes to their collections, while more than 4,100 Tamworth homes will be impacted.
The report added:
“We have worked with waste experts BIFFA to carry out the optimisation and combined their technical expertise with our local knowledge to minimise the impact.
“The result will see changes to 5831 residents’ collection days, with 3,146 having a day change on the same week, while 589 residents will have a week change – such as their recycling and general waste weeks swapping – and 2,096 residents will have both a day change and a week change.
“The route optimisation will allow us to drop one round every fortnight, saving staffing and fuel.”
If approved at the meeting, the changes would begin to roll out in late October and early November in order to prepare for the waste food collections.
“Every affected household will receive a letter explaining why we are changing their collection day, thanking them for understanding and providing a new calendar.
“Ward councillors and parish councils will also be briefed to be able to provide support.”
The new food waste collection vehicles are due to be delivered in February.
But the report said additional staff still needed to be found.
“We ran an internal recruitment exercise, and four loaders have been selected to be trained as drivers for the new food waste service. We will still need to find another six drivers.
“We will begin agency worker recruitment in late autumn to bring agency loaders on for training in readiness for the food waste. Bringing loaders on as agency first allows us them to see if they like the work, gives us the opportunity see whether they can perform in the role and provides a pool of talent we can then recruit from.
“As soon as the ongoing food waste funding is confirmed and we can grow our establishment, we will offer agency workers who like and want to remain in the role, the opportunity to apply for a permanent position.”
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