Hundreds of Derbyshire homes to have their bin day changed to make collections more efficient

South Derbyshire District Council is looking at changing bin collections in some areas to make pickups more efficient

More than 800 Derbyshire homes will have their bin collection days changed so that pickups are more efficient. A South Derbyshire District Council report details that 811 homes will need their collection day to be changed in order to gain a more efficient pickup schedule.

It says most of these are in Shardlow (more than 550), with pickups moving from Tuesdays to Mondays. Meanwhile, smaller areas within Dalby, Osleston, Radbourne, Sutton on the Hill, Thurvaston, Trusley and Etwall would see their pickups move from Mondays to Tuesdays

These changes, if approved, would start from February 26, in just over a month and affected residents will be contacted by post in the week starting January 29. Any residents who have their bins missed by the day change will have a follow-up collection on the Saturday of that week.

The new routes would see collection crews focus on urban and some semi-rural areas and a separate crew focusing on rural pickups in a bid to increase efficiency in what are currently “imbalanced” rounds which stretch staff across a broader area. There are 51,300 homes across 2,500 streets in the district and the current routes are based on an analysis drawn up more than 10 years ago, with thousands more homes having been built since then.

Meanwhile, the council is keeping its options open on cleaner bin collection lorries, with the current options being electric or hydrogen but both are in the “early stages”. The council says electric bin lorries are double the cost of the existing lorries and do not have the range required for council collections in rural and semi-rural areas – around 60-80 miles.

It is still trialling hybrid hydrogen bin lorries (still using diesel), which continues until April this year and then will be assessed for viability. As a result it will, in the short term, continue buying petrol and diesel vehicles for bin collections, though smaller vehicles used by the council (up to 3.5 tonnes) will be switched to electric, with furthermore affordable options available in that area.

The council is looking to spend £2.25 million on vehicle replacements over the next year, totalling £8.2 million up to 2031 and maintenance of vehicles due to cost £223,150 over the next year. Use of hydrotreated vegetable oil in its vehicles could reduce the council’s emissions by 87 per cent but would cost £230,000 more.