Waste and refuse
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people who have concerns about how their council collects and deals with household rubbish and commercial/industrial waste.
Organisations the Ombudsman can look at
We hold councils to account for services they pay other organisations, including private companies, to carry out on their behalf. This means we can still investigate complaints about those services. So, if a private company collects your waste, on behalf of the council, we can still consider a complaint about the service.
I can't get all my rubbish in my wheelie bin, and the council won't collect additional bags. Can the Ombudsman help?
Councils have a duty to collect household waste free of charge, but they can limit the number of bins they are prepared to collect. The council can tell you where you must put your bin, and what you can and can’t put in it. The council can impose other rules too, provided they are not unreasonable and it has given you adequate notice. For example, it can require you to use a certain box or bin or change the waste collection day. We may be able to help if you think the council has been unreasonable or if your personal circumstances make it difficult for you to comply with the council’s requests. We may also get involved if you experience repeated missed collections of your rubbish, recycling or garden waste.
The council is charging for garden waste – I don’t have any trees in my garden so I should not have to pay?
A council does not have to collect garden waste but it is a service it can choose to provide. It is allowed to make a charge and most councils do. The charge applies to everyone who chooses to use the service regardless of whether the leaves and other garden waste comes from trees and vegetation that do not belong to the resident (i.e all the leaves fall from street trees). If the person thinks the charge is excessive, or unfair, they do not have to use the service.
My council has not yet implemented separate food waste collections, in line with the 2026 Simpler Recycling Government legislation. Can the Ombudsman help me?
In most cases, likely not. By law, we cannot deal with a complaint about something that affects all or most people living in a council’s area. This means we cannot investigate a complaint that a council has not made required changes to its collections. It is also unlikely we would consider this has caused such significant personal injustice to warrant our involvement.
How do I complain?
You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
The council’s policy should say how long it will take to respond. Our Complaint Handling Code says councils should have no more than two stages in a complaint process. The longest a complaint should take is 16 weeks.
The council should provide you with updates on your complaint, including when it may take longer to respond.
If your complaint is not making any progress, you can follow our top tips for making a complaint to find out what is happening.
If you complained more than 16 weeks ago, and you have not received a final response, we may be able to make enquiries about what is happening to your complaint. You should have tried to ask the council what is happening before contacting us about any delay.
If the council has sent you a final response (usually saying something like ‘this is our final response’) and you are unhappy with the outcome, you can complain to us.
You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
We deal with complaints about household and commercial refuse collections; transfer, landfill and public amenity sites; bulky waste collections; fly tipping and notices served on people to clean up their gardens. We look at the facts of each case. If you have kept records or taken photographs, these may be very helpful. We consider whether the council has done something wrong and, if it has, the effect this has had on you. Some faults we might find are that the council:
- unreasonably refused to collect all household waste
- failed to issue a warning before taking action
- failed to ensure a landfill site was not a nuisance to its neighbours, or
- charged for clearing rubbish from private land without giving the owner a chance to clear it first.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?
It depends on what the consequences are for you and what fault we find, but generally:
- we would ask the council, wherever possible, to do what is necessary to put you back in the position you would have been in but for its fault and to ensure that, in future, the fault is not repeated
- if it is not possible to remedy your complaint in this way, we may ask the council to pay you a financial remedy, and/or
- if your complaint reveals faults in the council’s policies or procedures, we may ask the council to change its procedures to improve its service and stop the problem being repeated. .
Examples of some complaints we have considered
Miss X complained the council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste as part of its assisted collection service. The council accepted these missed collections and in response to her complaint, it said it had added prompts to its in-cab technology to remind the crew she required assisted collections.
Miss X reported a further two missed collections after this. The council explained it appeared the waste crew had a conflicting understanding of the presentation point for Miss X's bins. We found the council at fault for several missed collections and not fully resolving the issue after it said it would. Miss X had mobility issues, and this caused significant injustice as she could not take uncollected waste away herself.
The council agreed to pay £200 to recognise Miss X's stress and frustration and it agreed to our recommendations to improve its service.
Ms Y moved into the council's area and found her home had a smaller recycling bin than is standard for the area. The council's website said she was entitled to a 240 litre recycling bin. She called the council. It gave her conflicting information about the cost of a new bin. Ms Y complained and the council said she would have to pay for a new bin as she did not meet exemption criteria.
We found the council at fault as its guidance about household waste collection did not refer to a charge for a bin in a section about people moving into a property with a smaller bin. This caused uncertainty to Ms Y as she felt unfairly treated as it was not clear whether new residents had to pay for this service.
The council agreed to provide Ms Y with a standard sized recycling bin free of charge. It also agreed to amend its guidance and website to make it clearer when charges for a new bin apply for others who may be in Ms Y’s situation in future.
Examples of some complaints we will not usually consider
Other sources of information
Many councils will have their refuse collection policy on their website. Find your council’s website at www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council
Focus Report - Lifting the Lid on Bin complaints.
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please contact us.
June 2026