Summary: Mr X complained the Council has failed to provide a replacement pod for his recycled paper and cardboard despite first requesting this in April 2022. He also complained the collection crew damaged his recycling bin in December 2024 and the Council has failed to replace it. We found the significant delay in providing a replacement pod amounts to fault. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council has failed to provide a replacement pod for his recycled paper and cardboard despite first requesting this in April 2022. Mr X disputes the Council’s claims that it has provided five replacement pods since 2022.
2. Mr X also complained the collection crew damaged his recycling bin in December 2024 and the Council has failed to replace it.

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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. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
5. 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

6. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

8. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
9. In addition to a household waste bin, the Council provides most households with a recycling bin, which has a removable pod insert. Plastic, metal and glass goes in the main part of the bin. The pod is for cardboard and paper.
10. In January 2025 collection crews began industrial action. This began with specific strike days each week when waste would not be collected. Then from 11 March 2025 it became an all-out strike. The Council suspended recycling collections when industrial action began and then declared a major incident on 31 March 2025 to address the impact of the industrial action.

What happened here

11. Mr X says the collection crew either lost or destroyed the pod for his recycling bin in March 2022. He requested a replacement on 1 April 2022 and says he was told a new pod would be delivered within 28 days. Mr X says that as his property is set back from the main road he gave very clear delivery instructions for how to access his property.
12. When the pod did not arrive, Mr X says he telephoned the Council and made a further request. He says that by the end of 2022 he had made at least six phone calls to the Council. During each call the Council provided the same generic information but did not explain why his pod had not been delivered.
13. Mr X says he continued to call well into 2024, but he still did not receive a replacement pod. During his calls in 2024 Mr X says he was told the machines to make the new pods were out of action resulting in a backlog of requests. In August 2024 the Council told Mr X he would have to wait three months for a pod. He chased again on 20 November 2024 when he had not received a replacement pod.
14. On 10 December 2024 Mr X made a formal complaint about the failure to deliver a replacement pod. The Council’s response noted it had delivered replacement pods on 29 April 2022, 3 August 2022, 17 August 2022, 1 March 2023 and 22 January 2024.
15. It said it had not received any further reports from Mr X or the crews since then and did not uphold his complaint. The Council also explained it intended to replace all paper pods with an additional green lidded recycling bin. It could not provide a date for delivery and said all requests were being dealt with in date order. The Council said it had outstanding orders from March 2024.
16. The Council suggested Mr X present paper neatly, in clear sacks or disposable cardboard boxes by the main bin on collection day.
17. Mr X was not satisfied with the Council’s response and asked for his complaint to be considered further. He disputed he had ever received a replacement pod despite providing directions and offering to collect the pod himself.
18. The Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint and responded in late January 2025. It acknowledged the difficulties caused by not receiving the pods, but reiterated its records showed it had delivered five pods. The Council said it was not responsible for Mr X not receiving them. It also confirmed it had added details of Mr X’s property’s location to the latest request.
19. In addition, the Council noted Mr X had not chased a replacement pod since he raised a request in April 2023 until his complaint in December 2024.
20. Mr X disputed this and referred to his calls in August and November 2024. Mr X is concerned that not all of his calls to the Council between Spring 2023 and the Summer of 2024 were correctly logged.
21. Mr X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his concerns. He is unhappy that the Council’s response to his complaint was to put him in a queue for a replacement pod/ bin when he had already been waiting three years. Mr X confirmed in February 2025 that the Council had now delivered a green lidded bin. This new service is not yet in operation. Mr X says that between 2023 and 2025 he provided his own recycling container for paper and card, but this was lost by the collection crew in December 2024.
22. In response to my enquiries the Council says it only holds call log data for two years. Its records since June 2023 show Mr X has called multiple times from a mobile number but in the majority of cases, ended the call before he reached an advisor.
23. The Council is unable to confirm where the replacement pods delivered to Mr X’s property were left. It says the management of bin deliveries has changed since 2022. Pods would have been dropped off as close to the entrance to the property as the driver can get, or if the driver could identify the recycling bin, it would be left in the bin. If the driver could not locate the property the Council would provide a map for redelivery when the crew was back in the area. In this case it gave the driver a map clearly showing where Mr X’s property is located.
24. The Council says it is unable to notify a resident when the delivery will take place. The Council is notified the pod was delivered when the driver returns with their paper worksheet and signs off the job as complete. It would then close the case on the Council’s online system. The Council is unable to provide evidence of a successful delivery.
25. As the Council is implementing a new system later this year, it is no longer accepting requests for replacement pods. It says pods are being replaced by a green lidded recycling bin. The Council has not delivered any new pods since September 2024 in preparation for a new bin roll out. It has closed any new or outstanding requests for pods since September 2024.
26. In addition, due to the backlog and the current industrial action the Council has stopped taking requests for additional or replacement bins. It is not delivering new or replacement recycling bins and due to the industrial action is not collecting recycling.

Analysis

27. As the Council requires residents to recycle waste in a particular way it should ensure they have the correct bins, boxes, and pods. There were delays in providing Mr X with a replacement pod. The Council says it delivered five replacement pods, but it is clear Mr X did not receive these. If he had received the pods he would not have needed to repeatedly request replacements or make a complaint.
28. The Council says requests are only closed by stores department officers once they have received confirmation from the driver that they have delivered the pod to the address. However it is unclear how/ where the Council delivers replacement pods, and it does not notify the resident of the delivery.
29. In response to Mr X’s complaint the Council noted Mr X had not contacted the Council between April 2023 and his complaint in December 2024. However, its records show Mr X made numerous calls in this period. Not all were connected to an advisor, but the records show Mr X called the Council twice in September 2023 and one of these calls lasted over 20 minutes. The records also show a call of almost 9 minutes in November 2024. Given Mr X’s concerns that not all of his calls were logged, I am not persuaded the Council’s records are accurate or reliable.
30. The significant delay in providing Mr X with a replacement pod amounts to fault. This has caused Mr X inconvenience and frustration as he has had to find other ways to recycle paper or cardboard for an unnecessarily extended period.

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Action

31. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £100 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the delay in providing a replacement pod has caused. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
32. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of the final decision on this complaint and provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

33. I find fault causing injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman