Ipswich Borough Council’s top priority when the Coronavirus struck was to keep essential services going and to support vulnerable residents and local businesses.
At the peak of the crisis we had more than 60 members of staff off work due to Coronavirus-related illness or self-isolation.
This was why we temporarily stopped collecting garden waste. We had to ensure we had enough staff to continue black and blue bin collections.
We understand that this has been a big issue for many households as it coincided with the onset of spring and the ‘growing season’.
But now, as our number of staff off work reduces, we can look to restart brown bin collections beginning on 12th May, helping residents get rid of the garden waste they have been patiently collecting over the past six weeks.
From 12th May, your brown bin will be collected on its normal scheduled day. If, after six long weeks, you’ve forgotten when that is you can check on our website www.ipswich.gov.uk.
A simple guide is: if you normally put your brown bin out with your blue bin then it will be emptied in the week beginning 11th May; if your brown bin is normally emptied with your black bin, it will restart the following week (18th May).
Please keep your brown bin out on collection day until it is emptied. Collection times may vary to begin with because we are expecting more, and heavier, bins to be left out than usual – so they will probably take us longer to empty.
We will not be picking up any additional material left beside the brown bin, as this has the potential to be a manual handling and littering issue and will add further delay. If you have too much garden waste for one bin load, please try to spread this out over the coming weeks.
As before, brown bin garden waste collections will remain free of charge for Ipswich residents.
This is another opportunity for me to thank all our marvellous bin crews for their tireless work during the lockdown.
Don’t forget to keep on giving them a wave – it really does cheer them up!