Covid-19 calls halt on garden waste collections

Bridgend County Borough Council’s garden waste collection service has temporarily ceased due to pressures brought on by the Covid-19 coronavirus.

The council and its waste partner, Kier, have been forced to stop the service at short notice after a composting contractor confirmed it will be unable to process local authority garden waste during the outbreak.

The authority has been left with no option other than to temporarily postpone the service, and to review it as the outbreak develops in the hope that it can be restarted. Any resident wishing to receive a full refund in the meantime will be able to do so.

The ongoing pandemic is having a significant impact upon not just all aspects of council services, but on our partners, contractors and suppliers, too. With the company that we and Kier use for turning garden waste into compost temporarily unable to accept any loads, we have no choice but to suspend the service and review it at a later date as the situation develops. As household recycling centres have also closed due to the outbreak, residents will need to consider alternative ways of disposing of their garden waste, or storing it until such time as the recycling centres can safely reopen.

We don’t advise householders to burn garden waste, but if you don’t own a composting bin and have available space, one temporary solution could be to create a compost heap which could be screened off. We hope that you will bear with us, but anyone who wishes to receive a refund for the service will of course be able to do so.

I’d like to thank people for their patience and understanding. These are unprecedented times that we are living through, but once the crisis is over, we will be seeking to restore council services to normal again as quickly as possible.

Councillor Richard Young, Cabinet Member for Communities