Background
Recycling in South Gloucestershire was not collected last week. This was as a result of strike action by Suez over pay, and this situation will probably be repeated over the course of June and July. South Gloucestershire Council is not directly responsible for the Suez staff and therefore the dispute is outside its direct control. During this current dispute, only black bins are being collected.
In a separate issue, the Council is currently discussing a future contract for refuse and recycling collection from 2025. In work that began under the previous Conservative-led administration, the Council is exploring reducing the collection frequency of black bins to once a month and raising the annual charge for green bins from £30 to £75.
These two issues have left residents concerned and confused, especially as the hot weather continues.
Support to striking workers
The Green Party believes that all workers should be paid a fair and living wage for their work. In South Gloucestershire we stand in solidarity with striking workers. We urge Suez to work to ensure a fair end to the industrial action that ensures that workers’ demands are met as closely as possible.
In the meantime, we recognise the concerns of local residents about the potential health risks of uncollected food waste in this hot weather. We urge the Council and Suez to add food waste collection to the black bins collection that is currently being provided.
Longer-term plans
We recognise the severe budgetary constraints that South Glos Council is facing and the need to cut costs. We also encourage all residents to take up recycling opportunities as much as possible. However, we recognise that, for some households, reducing black bin collection to just once a month would pose serious challenges. The impact could be disproportionately felt by larger households and those containing more vulnerable members of the community. We urge the Council to work with local residents to understand the challenges. We call on the Council to identify those households that might need extra support and work on ways to support them. We would also like to understand further why the Council is exploring a jump from every two weeks to every four weeks rather than considering three-week cycles.