Biffa has won an eight-year household waste and recycling contract with Winchester City Council, starting in September 2020. The new contract includes the following changes.
- There will be a new free household collection of small electrical items such as toasters, kettles or clocks for recycling.
- The new vehicle fleet will replace older lorries with Euro6-compliant vehicles that emit lower levels of harmful exhaust pollutants, helping to reduce carbon emissions.
- A greater use of narrower vehicles will improve access in smaller streets and reduce congestion on busy roads.
- Bin lorries will have new technology on board to provide real-time information to alert the depot to issues and improve collection rates and support continuing improvements to collection reliability.
Martin Tod, cabinet member for service quality and transformation at Winchester City Council, said: "A big priority for our bin service has been to recycle more and cut the number of missed bins - and Biffa and people working for Biffa have been really good partners in making that happen.
"While we won't be happy until no bins are missed, the latest figures show we've made really good progress - much better than the same time last year. And we've got plans to improve the service even further.
Biffa said its collections would not change and that there would be an alternate weekly collection of household waste and recycling. Kerbside glass recycling collection is monthly and there is a fortnightly garden waste collection. The assisted collection service will remain, as will collections of bulky and clinical waste.
Winchester City Council aims to make the council carbon-neutral by 2024 expanding this to the wider district by 2030.