Veolia, in partnership with Merton Council, is rolling out improvements to the existing flats above shops collection service to improve the cleanliness of Merton’s streets. Recycling and rubbish will be picked up overnight from flats above shops and other homes using time-banded collections, giving residents the flexibility of two collection slots per week.
Time-banded collections are carried out for residents with no outdoor space for containers, such as those living in flats above shops, or homes with their entrance on streets with high footfall, and have their recycling and waste collected in bags.
Residents with this service will now have the option to choose from one weekday and one weekend collection, and will be asked to present their bagged recycling and rubbish between 18.00 – 20.00 on their chosen day. This will leave streets cleaner during the busiest parts of the day.
To encourage an uptake in recycling, a roll of purple recycling bags will be posted to these households twice a year along with an informational leaflet to ensure the service change is clear and easy to understand.
Residents will need to provide their own general waste bags, and are encouraged to only present one bag per week in order to recycle as much as possible. The collection time bands will be enforced by Merton Council, with recycling and rubbish bags presented outside of these times treated as fly-tips, which can be prosecuted.
Scott Edgell, General Manager for Veolia South London said:
“Working with Merton Council, we are pleased to deliver this innovative dedicated time-banded collection service for residents in Merton to improve street cleanliness in the borough. This will improve the efficiency of collections by incorporating them into the existing night time street cleansing resource, creating a more robust service.”
Natasha Irons, Cabinet Member for Local Environment, Green Spaces & Climate Change:
“We have been listening to the views of our residents and have been working with Veolia to make even more changes to our waste service. This improved collection service will give residents living in a flat above a shop more flexibility, and help keep our streets clean”.
Residents experiencing the change will receive a letter, information leaflet and roll of purple bags ahead of 8 March 2023, plus a letter following the change, to ensure they have all the information they need. Residents can also visit merton.gov.uk/timebanding for more information.
