Domestic Refuse & Recyling Collections - Service
Standards
The Domestic Refuse and Recycling Collection Service helps the
council meet its corporate priority around improving and protecting
the local environment. We collect waste and recycling material from
nearly 47,000 properties. This information explains how we arrange
collection of household waste and recycling materials, deal with
any queries or problems and what standards you can expect from
us.
What we do
The Domestic Waste and Recycling Collection is part of the Street
Scene Services Division. We will collect domestic waste from your
property in grey wheelie bins one week and your recycling goods -
green bin, blue box, blue bag, textiles and cardboard the following
week.
For a small number of properties in areas of Skelmersdale where the
design of houses and streets creates particular access problems, we
collect domestic refuse from your property in grey bin bags with
yellow crosses each week. On the same day on alternate weeks we
will also collect your recycling goods - green bag, blue box, blue
bag, textiles and cardboard.
Fees and payment
There is no direct charge - this is already part of your council
tax.
Our service promise
- We will collect your general household waste - everything that
can't be recycled - on your appointed 'grey' day. We will collect
your material for recycling - blue box, blue bag, green bin/bag,
textiles, and cardboard - on your appointed 'green' day. Please be
aware that during bank holiday periods your normal collection day
will stay the same. The only exception to this will be over the
Christmas period and the revised collection days will be published
in the local press.
- If for some reason we have missed your normal collection,
please contact Customer Services on 01695 577177.
- We will collect any reported missed collection for domestic
refuse within 24 hours. We aim to collect any missed recycling
materials on Friday afternoons. You must have reported your items
to us by 5.30pm on a Thursday to have them collected the same
week.
- We aim to achieve the highest service standards, but there may
be occasions where delays might be experienced, such as during
severe weather.
How you can help us
- Please ensure that on collection day you put your bins, bags
and boxes out by 7.00am. Residents whose property opens straight
onto a public pavement should make sure that items cause as little
disruption to the pavement area as possible. Everyone else should
put items at the very edge of their property, easily accessible to
the collection crew.
- Please don't use black bin bags, as we no longer collect them.
All refuse must be within your grey wheelie bin (with the lid
closed) or your specially colour coded grey sack with yellow
crosses.
- You can help us by not putting out broken glass, mirrors or any
other plastic than bottles (like yogurt pots and margarine tubs)
and any other metal aside from tins or cans in your blue box, as we
are unable to collect them.
- Please rinse all containers and remove lids and corks before
placing items in your blue box. If you can, please squash your cans
and plastic bottles - it means you get more in your box and we can
collect more. If you can't fit everything in, leave the extra in
supermarket carrier bags at the side. Ideally keep the same
materials together i.e. all plastic in one bag and all tins in
another bag.
- Only put out clean dry clothes in your textiles bag and make
sure that you tie the top of the bag to protect the contents. We
cannot collect shoes, duvets or pillows. One textiles bag will be
provided to each household, however if you find that you cannot fit
all of your textiles into the one bag, call Customer Services on
01695 577177 and they will arrange for an additional bag to be
delivered to you.
- Ensure only garden waste goes in your green bin/bag, such as
grass cuttings, hedge clippings, small branches, weeds, leaves and
flowers. We can only take what is contained inside your green
bin/bag and your bin lid must be closed.
- To present cardboard for collection please collapse packaging
and bundle it together. This could be done by putting all your
cardboard out for collection inside another cardboard box, folding
it as flat as possible and trapping it under your blue box or tying
it up with a piece of string (please don't use cellotape).
Alternatively, you can put all your flattened cardboard into old
supermarket carrier bags.
Our general standards
We have a number of general standards, which apply to all services
across West Lancashire District Council. You may find these useful
to note:
- We aim to answer letters and emails within 10 working
days.
- If you request a fuller reply, or the matter requires detailed
investigation, we will send you an acknowledgment within 10 days,
which will set out what action is being taken and when you are
likely to receive a detailed response.
- We aim to answer your phone calls within 10 seconds.
- You can make an appointment to see a manager or speak to staff
in confidence.
- At all times our staff will show courtesy, respect and
sensitivity.
- To view our general standards in full see Corporate
Standards.
Give us your feedback
We want to provide services that delight our customers and which
are second to none. We monitor the standards we set but also value
feedback from our customers and residents on how we can further
improve services. If you have any comments, compliments or
complaints, there is a form on which you can make any suggestions.
These are available by downloading a copy from our website or by
visiting our main offices. Alternatively you can call Customer
Services and one of our advisers will complete a form with you over
the phone.
If you do make a complaint about our services, please note that we
have a formal process for dealing with these. These should
initially be addressed to the service manager whose details are
given below. Our promise to you is that any complaint will be
answered within 10 working days.
Contacting us
Click: Refuse & Recycling
Email:
graham.concannon@westlancsdc.gov.uk
Call: 01695 577177 or 01695 585191
Come in: 52 Derby Street, Ormskirk or the CSP at the Concourse,
Skelmersdale
Our offices are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday, and
9.00am to 4.45pm on Friday.
Our Customer Contact Centre is open from 8.30am to 5.30pm Monday to
Friday for telephone calls.
We can provide this information upon request on audiotape, in large
print, in Braille and in other languages.