Council will miss food bin introduction deadline

A Cheshire council said it will miss a government-set deadline on introducing weekly food waste collections.

Under changes coming into force from 31 March 2026, councils must collect food waste on a weekly basis.

Cheshire East Council said it would bring in weekly food waste collections in the autumn - along with general waste collections every three weeks - and said changes required meant it could not meet the deadline.

The government said councils must meet the deadline unless there was a transitional arrangement in place.

As part of the changes - first proposed under the previous Conservative government - food waste must be collected weekly and free of charge.

Councils can choose to collect food and garden waste together, but in areas where there are charges for garden waste - like in Cheshire East - councils cannot charge for the collection of food waste.

Cheshire East Council said it was set to miss the deadline because it needed "to expand our waste depot to accommodate the required infrastructure".

David Jefferay, chair of the council's environment and communities committee, added it needed to buy in the new food waste caddies and the vehicles to collect them, for which there were supply chain delays.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) had been notified of the timetable, the council said.

DEFRA said the changes would "end the postcode lottery of bin collections".

Elsewhere in Cheshire, Warrington Council said it would be ready for the 31 March launch.

Cheshire West and Chester Council said it already collected food waste weekly except for some city centre properties and flats, and that extending to those homes was a "priority" over the coming months.

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