Harmonising our waste and recycling services

Our plans for a single waste and recycling service for the whole of Westmorland and Furness. This includes why we’re introducing these changes, what we’ve done so far and what’s happening next.

Contents

Introduction

The district councils of Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland were replaced by Westmorland and Furness Council in 2023. Read about the council changes.

We’ve inherited a complex mix of waste and recycling services. Each of the three areas has their own arrangements, which include:

  • how we collect your waste and recycling – some of our services are delivered by contractors
  • how often we collect it
  • the bags, boxes and bins you must use 
  • paying a fee for garden waste collection, or not 

We need to make our service more consistent and we’re working to create a single use service. This will make our service consistent and offers other benefits, such as: 

  • reducing waste
  • making it easier and more convenient for you to recycle 
  • being more reliable
  • being better for the environment
  • being cost-effective 

What has been agreed

Our councillors agreed on a new harmonised waste and recycling service at a Cabinet meeting in September 2025.  Our Cabinet meeting minutes (item 53) on 9 September 2025 has information that includes: 

  • all of the options we considered
  • a summary of our public engagement and consultations
  • feedback from members 
  • other relevant documents 

Read our news story about our agreement to harmonise our waste and recycling collections, published 10 September 2025.

The councillors also  agreed to introduce a garden waste subscription service at our Budget Council meeting (item 7) on 26 February 2026. 

Find our news story about our garden waste subscription, published 13 March 2026.

Our progress so far

We’ve introduced our garden waste subscription service on 1 April 2026.

Following a successful trial in the Eden area and feedback from  residents, we now collect drinks containers (such as Tetra Pak). You can put these items in your usual recycling container with your plastics. 

What the changes mean

Many of our residents will have new bins and containers and, in some areas, we’ll change how often we collect your household waste and recycling. 

Current arrangements

You can find the current arrangements for your waste and recycling in our information about:

Recently changed arrangements

We started a new subscription service for garden waste on 1 April 2026. This has replaced the free collection service in Eden and South Lakeland. Barrow residents had to pay for this service before 1 April. 

Future arrangements

The changes include: 

  • one 240 litre wheelie for general household waste: We’ll empty this fortnightly, on the opposite week to your recycling day 
  • two 180 litre wheelie bins for recycling: One for paper and card, the other for plastic, cans and glass.  We’ll empty them fortnightly, on the opposite week to your household waste day
  • bespoke arrangements for residents and communities that cannot adopt wheelie bins: We’ll look at specific cases individually to make sure we find a suitable solution, as we already do
  • bringing the waste and recycling service in-house: This means that in the future, we will collect it for all areas

We’ll continue to offer assisted collections for residents who cannot put their bin out. 

How we assessed our options

When deciding which options to adopt, we used feedback from the public and independent technical reviews. 

Read about all the options we considered in full.

We used six key criteria to review our options, which were also followed by the independent assessors. They must: 

  • be consistent, fair and give everyone the same service
  • improve performance by making it easier and simpler for residents to waste less and recycle more
  • reflect what residents told us during our consultations and pilot schemes
  • reduce our carbon impact and add to our net zero ambitions 
  • fit with our strategies. For example, complying with national legislation and our Council Plan ambitions
  • be achievable and sustainable. This involves taking costs and savings into account, considering how difficult they’d be to implement and how long it would take  

Community engagement and pilots

We ran two consultation exercises. The first was to help us develop possible options for our waste and recycling service. We ran the second to gather feedback on the options. 

We also ran pilots to give residents in trial areas to try out changes and share their experiences. 

Consultation one

During November and December 2024, we ran a Community Conversation on waste and recycling. 

This initial consultation was to gather peoples’ thoughts on our current waste and recycling services – what they liked, what they’d like to change and what they’d like to see in the future. 

Nearly 3,000 people gave their feedback though a survey, in-person events and online events. We used this information when created our possible options for our service. 

Consultation two

Over May and June 2025, we received over 4,300 responses to our further consultation our waste and recycling service options.

The consultation involved a survey (online and paper) and drop in events.

The survey included questions about:

  • the size of waste and recycling bins and containers
  • the frequency of collections
  • potentially charging for garden waste collections

Pilot schemes

We ran a number of pilot schemes and trials for different collection methods and containers. This included: 

  • ‘co-mingling’ recycling in parts of Ulverston 
  • using wheelie bins for general household waste (instead of bags) in some of the Eden area 
  • kerbside collection of beverage cartons (such as Tetra Pak) in the Eden area, after feedback that people want to be able to recycle them more easily

Why we’ve chosen fortnightly household waste collections, instead of weekly  

We know that some people may greet weekly household waste collections positively or feel that it would be an ‘improved service’. We included weekly collections in our options and assessed it for cost effectiveness, environmental impact, achievability and other factors in our six key criteria.

Weekly collections for the whole of our area would bring significant costs, such as: 

  • more vehicle fuel 
  • more vehicle maintenance
  • staff for the extra rounds
  • buying extra vehicles (potentially)
  • buying and delivering new household waste bins for all properties. For example, the 55,000 households in South Lakeland already use 240 litre wheelie bins. If we had a weekly bin we’d need to replace them all with smaller bins

There are also environmental benefits to fortnightly collections. By making fewer journeys, we’ll use less fuel and reduce wear and tear on our vehicles. This will help reduce the carbon impact of our waste and recycling service. 

National studies suggest that weekly general waste collections discourage recycling, with more people likely to put recyclable materials in their general waste bin if it is emptied every week. These studies show less frequent general waste collections can act as an incentive for people to use their recycling containers more effectively.

Most local authorities collect general waste every two weeks.  Some authorities have moved to three-weekly or monthly general waste collections. This is to encourage people to make better use of their recycling facilities.

Why we’re using wheelie bins instead of bags and boxes

For general waste in areas that have bags instead of bins, residents reported that a wheelie bin is easier and more convenient to use. 

For recycling, our pilot trials showed that wheelie bins:

  • are generally easier to move to collection points
  • do not take up any more room than bags and boxes 
  • make it easier to recycle effectively 

There are other advantages to us using wheelie bins too, such as:

  • there are no separate lids that can get blown away and lost 
  • they’re more robust than separate bags and boxes, so are less likely to blow over 
  • they’re quicker and easier for our crews to empty. This makes the rounds more efficient, saves money and helps make our service reliable

Why we’ve chosen to separate recycling into two bins

Most councils in the past have asked residents to sort their recyclable materials by type. This was the most efficient way to avoid contamination, and to ensure everything was collected and recycled.

Recycling facility technology has improved. The latest machinery can identify and sort loads into different types and grades of material. This means that recycling can be combined and residents do not have to sort as much.

There are several advantages to reducing the amount for sorting and using wheelie bins:

  • saving time for our residents
  • improving our recycle performance by making it easier to recycle. Evidence shows that less sorting encourages people to recycle more and waste less
  • we do not need special recycling vehicles with separate compartments for each material and can use same types of bin wagons for recycling, household waste and garden waste. This makes the service more efficient, and it is easier to find cover for unexpected breakdowns
  • wheelie bin wagons have inbuilt lifting gear, so it’s easier and safer for our crews to complete their rounds more efficiently. This will make the service more reliable and reduce missed collections

We’re following best practice in having one bin for paper and card, and the other to combine (‘co-mingle’) the rest of your recycling. Although your recycling goes into two bins, it’s sorted at the plant before it’s sent for recycling. 

We do not send any of the recyclable items we collect at the kerbside to landfill.

Why you’ll see more of your recycling being collected in ‘bin’ wagons 

Most households are going to have their recycling bags and boxes replaced with two 180 litre wheelie bins. You’ll need to use one for paper and card, and the other for the rest of your recycling. 

You may see us emptying both bins into the same vehicle. They have different compartments inside, to avoid contamination. So, your paper and cardboard are kept separate from the rest of your recycling. 

You’ll start to see newer and more efficient vehicles, as we part of our roll out. These vehicles are more reliable and will reduce emissions. They’ll also give us more flexibility to manage collections across our area.

This means you will increasingly see your recycling being collected in these wagons. We’re going to phase out our old vehicles, which can only take recycling, with sections for each material.

Information about the wheelie bin sizes

Our wheelie bins will have the following dimensions: 

240 litres

  • height: 106 cm
  • width: 57.5 cm
  • depth: 73 cm 

A 240 litre wheelie bin will comfortably take five or six of the standard bin bags used in a 30 litre kitchen bin. Evidence has shown that this is more than adequate capacity for a typical family’s needs over two weeks, if recyclables are removed.

180 litres

  • height: 106 cm
  • width: 48cm
  • depth: 73cm

Two 180 litre wheelie bins will increase recycling capacity in areas that currently have bags and boxes. There’ll also be more space for carboard and plastic, which we are the two materials we collect the most of. 

Our wheelie bins will be easier and more convenient to use. This helps us to meet one of our key objectives, which is for people to recycle more and waste less.

Arrangements for properties that do not have room for two recycling bins 

The 180 litre recycling wheelie bins are 48cm wide and 73cm deep. Together, they take up around the same floor space as two recycling boxes and a bag. 

We recognise that in some specific cases, not every property has room for all the containers. For example:

  • flats and apartments
  • some terraced or cottage-style properties, that do not have yards or outside space 

We already look at these types of cases individually. Our Cabinet has made it clear that we will continue to do so. We’ll work with householders to come up with a suitable solution, where appropriate. For example, local drop-ins and whole community solutions, if there are many properties in an area that cannot adopt wheelie bins.

We’ll also continue to offer assisted collections to anyone who is unable to move their bins to their collection point.

We’ve used public engagement, consultations and pilot trials to develop our approach towards waste and recycling collections. This includes the size and type of containers we’ll use. From the thousands of comments we received, we’ve agreed upon a system that reflects the wishes of the majority of the people who responded. 

Whether we’ll provide everyone with a new set of wheelie bins

This depends on where you live. 

For general waste, residents in Barrow and Eden will need new 240 litre bins. Households in South Lakeland will not, as they already have a wheelie bin of this size for general waste.

Fo recycling, we’ll provide all households with two new 180 litre bins. 

Replacing our existing bins, bags and boxes will add to the costs. There were options that reduced the need for new wheelie bins and rated better in cost comparisons. However, cost was not the only factor we considered. These options may not have been the best for other reasons, such as carbon impact and public perception. 

Why we’ve introduced a subscription service for garden waste

Garden waste collections are not covered by council tax. We must collect general waste and recycling free of charge, but garden waste collection is a discretionary service. Around 65% of local authorities in England already charge for garden waste collections as a non-essential and opt-in service. 

We introduced a garden waste subscription service on 1 April 2026. A free fortnightly garden waste collection service for every household would be financially and environmentally costly.  

Councillor Giles Archibald, Cabinet Member for Climate, Biodiversity and Environmental Services, has commented:

"We know this is a big change for some of our residents, and we understand it won’t be popular. This was not a decision taken lightly but the council faces significant financial challenges, and the Government’s Fair Funding Review means we will receive less government funding over the coming years. To protect vital services that everyone relies on, we’ve had to look carefully at discretionary services like garden waste collections.”

Read more information in our news story about why we’re introducing a garden waste subscription service, published 13 March 2026.

Not everyone needs or uses the garden waste service. Having a subscription charge means those that use the service help to pay for its running costs and those that do not use the service, do not pay for it. A significant proportion of properties in our area do not have gardens, yards or other outside spaces, so they have little or no need for a garden waste collection. This is particularly the case in larger towns like Barrow, Kendal and Penrith. 

We’re making all areas of our service consistent. A universal free garden waste service would require us to plan and resource a collection for every household. This would involve: 

  • buying enough bins for every property
  • finding solutions for people who live in flats, apartments and other properties without outdoor space 
  • having the vehicles and staff to collect from each property 

A chargeable subscription service means that we can use the income to provide collections to households that are signed up. This will decrease the demand on the service, which will reduce:

  • amount of vehicle fuel we use
  • the amount of maintenance our vehicles need
  • our carbon impact

Food waste

The government’s Simpler Recycling legislation came into force in April 2026. Among other things, this means that local authorities must now run free weekly food waste collections.

Read about Simpler Recycling in England (GOV.UK).

We, and Cumberland Council, have a 25-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with Biffa for residual waste. This is due to expire in 2034. We’re both new authorities and we’re working to harmonise our services, which are now separate. Defra have recognised this and granted us an exception for the remainder of the contact. This means we have until 2034 to implement weekly food waste collections.

We recognise the environmental benefits of introducing separate food waste collections. The planned changes to our waste and recycling service are all compatible with a food waste collection in the future.

We’re working with Cumberland Council, Biffa and other stakeholders to explore ways of introducing food waste collections before 2034. We’ll engage with Defra and central government.  Cabinet will decide how and when to introduce a food waste collection in the future. 

For reassurance, at present, food waste collected in Westmorland and Furness as part of the general waste collection already gets re-processed and does not go directly to landfill.

All non-recyclable waste (including food) is taken to a mechanical biological treatment plant (MBT) in Barrow. It’s processed to produce a fuel, which is then used in cement kilns and energy from waste plants to produce electricity. This diverts almost 100% of the waste from landfill. 

What happens next

We’ll bring in the new arrangements in phases in different areas. We make 7.5 million collections from 117,000 households in our area, so this will be a complex task. For example, we need to: 

  • work with residents to develop bespoke arrangements in areas with access issues
  • purchase new wheelie bins, systems and vehicles

This phased approach will ensure our services are reliable, sustainable and meet your needs. We need to allow time for our teams and communities to adapt smoothly to the new arrangements. We’ll keep you informed and updated throughout this process. 

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