Summary: Ms X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling waste in the last year. I have found fault with the Council’s actions. It has failed to collect waste as agreed and has delayed acting to resolve the issue. This caused Ms X injustice. The Council will apologise, make payment to Ms X and take action to prevent reoccurrence.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling waste in the last year.
2. She says this has caused rubbish to build up and overflow into her garden. She is concerned about the potential health risks the build-up of rubbish creates.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered:
• The information provided by Ms X and discussed the complaint with her;
• The Council’s comments on the complaint and the supporting information it provided; and
• Relevant law and guidance.
6. Ms X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

7. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly, and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
8. Council’s must prevent and minimise pollution to the environment.

The Council’s recycling policy

9. The policy states it will provide residents with either a wheelie bin, green box or clear sack for collecting recycling, and these will be collected once a week.
10. It states that it will remove any recycling bins which repeatedly contain incorrect materials.

Key events

11. Ms X lives in a flat, located on a busy street near a bus stop. The Council provides each flat with a wheelie bin for disposing of recycling.
12. Ms X says she puts her recycling out each week and does not leave the bin on the street before the morning the Council is due to collect it.
13. Ms X reported missed collections on two occasions in January 2023, two occasions in March, three occasions in April and two occasions in May.
14. In late February 2023 Ms X raised a complaint to the Council about her bin collections. She noted the recycling truck had not collected her bin. She also had not been given a warning notice to show her recycling was contaminated.
15. Ms X raised a further complaint in mid-March. Again, she explained the truck had not collected her bins and that no red tags were being placed on the bins to show they were contaminated.
16. The Council responded in late March explaining it would arrange a collection of Ms X’s bins. It explained that its long-term plan was to introduce clear bags for recycling to prevent contamination. It stated letters about this would be sent in the next week.
17. The Council sent a refuse truck to collect the recycling waste the following day.
18. Ms X contacted the Council to say that she was unhappy with its response. She explained that she was going to a lot of effort to prevent her recycling from being contaminated and therefore felt it should be collected as recycling.
19. In early May Ms X chased the Council as she had not had a response. She noted that every couple of weeks a refuse truck would collect her recycling.
20. The Council responded to explain that it could not justify sending a truck to collect uncontaminated recycling and a truck to collect contaminated recycling. Therefore, considering the costs and the high likelihood of contamination it had sent a refuse truck.
21. It explained that to replace the wheelie bins it needed to carry out several steps. This included arranging for an officer to visit the site and assessing the location, carrying out a consultation and then deciding on replacing the bins.
22. Ms X was unhappy with the Council’s response as she felt it had ignored the scale of the missed collections and there was no timescale placed on resolving the issues.
23. In mid-June 2023 the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint. It accepted that it had not collected recycling from her property. It explained this was because passersby often contaminated the waste. It said collecting this would contaminate the whole lorry. It said because of this it had decided not to collect from Ms X’s property. It explained it would continue to empty the bins regularly and was considering a switch to clear bags for the properties effected.
24. In late September the Council sent an internal email agreeing the removal of wheelie bins and replacing them with clear sacks for recycling waste. It said residents needed to be written to explaining this and asking for the return of bins.
25. The Council still uses wheelie bins, and it has not issued clear sacks.

Findings

26. The Council accepts that Ms X’s recycling bin has not been collected by the recycling truck since the beginning of 2023 as Ms X complained. Although it says it has taken steps to ensure her recycling bin is emptied each week, she denies this. In her complaints she said this was happening every couple of weeks. The Council has not provided evidence of the collections occurring weekly in line with its policy. This is fault.
27. I appreciate that Ms X is concerned the Council isn’t disposing of her recycling properly. While the Council must collect recycling, it also has an overriding duty to prevent and minimise pollution. It is therefore reasonable that it considers the effect of contaminated recycling. In my view it is reasonable for the Council to have stopped including the bins from Ms X’s area to prevent contaminating the whole truck. I do not consider this to amount to fault.
28. Although I consider it reasonable the Council considered the effects of contaminated recycling, I would expect it to have looked into a solution sooner. The Council said it would look into providing clear bags for recycling in February 2023. It has repeated this in its complaint response in May and June.
29. The Council has provided a different process explanation in different correspondence. It has said both that it needs to write to the effected residents and would do so within a week and that it needed to arrange a visit and carry out a consultation. I have seen no evidence that since February the Council has carried out either of these choices. Further I note that in late September a decision appears to have been made to replace the wheelie bins. However, the Council has taken no action to follow through on the decision made. This delay is fault.
30. Ms X has been left frustrated by the Council’s actions in not collecting her recycling as wanted. This has led to bins over-flowing and rubbish entering her garden. This frustration has been exacerbated by the Council’s delay in taking steps to resolve the issue in the long term.

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Agreed action

31. Within one month of the final decision the Council will:
• Apologise to Ms X for the distress caused by its failure to collect rubbish every week and the delay in resolving the issue.
• Pay Ms X £100 to address the injustice caused by the Council’s actions.
32. Within two months of the final decision the Council will:
• Take steps to introduce the proposed clear bags.
33. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

34. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault which has caused an injustice. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice and prevent the reoccurrence.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman