Changes to waste and recycling collections coming to your high streets

On October 2nd, Council approved new waste regulations for households and businesses to enhance the appearance of our streets. These regulations aim to reduce visual clutter by controlling the placement of rubbish bins and sacks on the street. 

To further support a cleaner environment, the regulations introduce the implementation of time banded waste collections for high streets, town centres and main commercial areas to help make our busy streets cleaner.  

This means residents and businesses on the time banded streets must put their waste and recycling out during specified 2-hour periods every day.  

Your waste will be collected twice daily, shortly after the specified time band. This will minimise the amount of time that waste is on the street, ensuring our streets are cleaner, increasing efficiency for the waste service and improving recycling capabilities for residents on those streets.  

Benefits of new arrangements: 

• The new service will operate twice daily, seven days a week, which means residents and businesses will have flexibility on which day to put their waste out for collection.    

• The introduction of time bands will allow the council to have better control over when waste is placed out on the street – improving street cleanliness.  

• The arrangements will allow the council to better support small and medium-sized businesses in main commercial areas, as the new service will allow us to offer scheduled commercial waste and recycling collections twice daily, seven days a week. 

The council will ensure residents and businesses understand the requirements of these changes. Full details of the regulations will be published widely.  

Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said: 

“This new waste and recycling arrangement is a significant aspect of the £5m investment into improving the efficiency and long-term delivery of the waste service and working towards a cleaner, greener borough.  

“We are the most densely populated borough in the country, which means we have to be flexible and creative to deliver an excellent waste service that works for our residents and businesses.” 

Cabinet Member for Environment and the Climate Emergency, Cllr Shafi Ahmed, said:  

“We are introducing these changes because we have seen how well they work in other busy areas of London and we are determined to deliver a service that meets the needs of our busy high street areas.  

“The council will be working hard to ensure residents and businesses are aware and informed of the changes over the next few months.” 

For more information on time bands and to check if your property/business will be affected by the new arrangements, please visit our website: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/timedcollections