On Monday 14 October 2019, the One Trafford Partnership introduced changes to the bin collection service across the borough. This has been done to help to reduce unnecessary travel by hundreds of miles per week, reduce CO2 emissions and save costs to public service. The changes has seen most residents’ day and/or order of bin collections change.
Over the first two weeks of the service change, crews have emptied an average of 97.4% of the 394,930 scheduled collections in the borough. Of the scheduled collections over this period, 0.7% have been reported as missed by residents.
Before the new bin service collections began, the partnership conducted an extensive campaign to make residents aware of the new service. This included 10 meet the team events, an introductory leaflet and a householder information pack delivered to every home, adverts in the media and a bin tag reminder for every household.
As crews familiarise themselves with the new rounds, the partnership has been able to identify problem areas. Following a review, additional green bin crews are already being deployed on top of the normal service to collect food and garden waste. A further review of the new service is being carried out to identify and resolve collection issues with each of the waste streams – paper and cardboard; plastic bottles, glass and metal; food and garden waste; and general waste.
The One Trafford Partnership, a collaboration between Trafford Council and Amey, attend over 197,000 scheduled collections every week.
Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Climate Change, Councillor Stephen Adshead, said:
While most bins are collected on the first attempt, we understand the new service has been frustrating for those who have had a missed collection. 60% of reported missed collections from the last two weeks have now been actioned, and crews are scheduled to return for the remainder. We are continuing to review the service over the coming weeks to resolve other identified issues andI would like to thank residents for bearing with us as crews familiarise themselves with the rounds to embed the new service.
In preparation for the new service launch, crew training was held together with their supervisor to familiarise themselves with their new collection areas. As well as providing round maps, the in-cab technology in the vehicles provides the crew with an electronic street list of the households they need to attend to. However, the in-cab technology is not a sat-nav – it does not provide instructions as to where to go next or give a visual representation of their location.
In the coming weeks, crews will continue to relay problem areas back to supervisors, who will then be able to monitor and resolve the issues. Teasing out such problems from the collection rounds is only possible whilst the operations are live. This will allow us to make further amendments as we embed the service.
Trafford are currently the top borough for recycling in Greater Manchester and the north west region. The most recent DEFRA figures for 2017/18 show that Trafford residents recycled 58.5% of their household waste.
If you’re experiencing any issues with bin collections, please report it online at www.trafford.gov.uk/report-it or by calling 03330 035865. For more information about Better Collections, or to download your new bin collection calendar, visit www.trafford.gov.uk/bettercollections.
Posted on Friday 1st November 2019