Mid Devon District Council is launching a trial of three weekly waste collections to more than a thousand households in the district.

The trial will take place in Holcombe Rogus and Westleigh as well as the area in and around Canal Hill in Tiverton. It will run for a three month period and will begin from 7^th July 2021.

In the trial areas half of the residents will use black sacks to put their waste out for collection while the other half of households will be issued with a 180L grey wheelie bin. Food waste, garden waste and recycling collections remain unchanged.

The trial is part of a process to improve recycling rates and reduce the residual waste put out for collection, which in turn will reduce the carbon impact and cut emissions from our collection vehicles. It will also help the Council to meet with Government guidelines to recycle 65% of household waste by 2035 and Devon’s proposed 60% target rate by 2025.

Mid Devon has not implemented any significant changes to its waste collections since 2015 and is now looking to follow many others local authorities, including neighbouring Somerset, who have successfully implemented three-weekly residual waste schemes.

Cllr Colin Slade, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Climate Change, said:

“As a Council we are committed and determined to reduce our carbon footprint, cutting the amount of waste we produce, improving the proportion we recycle and reducing the emissions impact of our fleet of vehicles. We hope our communities taking part in this trial will support the scheme which will enable our team to assess how the collections would work if rolled out across the district.”

Residents within the trial areas will receive a letter with further details shortly.

For more information regarding three weekly collections and to view the full list of the roads included in the trial area please refer to our website: www.middevon.gov.uk/3weekly