Household collections

Prior to becoming a unitary authority, each district council had responsibility for delivering waste collection services. There remains some inconsistency in the size and colour of containers in use across the county due to this. Bins previously issued will remain in use until a replacement is required due to loss or damage. All new containers delivered will be the standard size used by the council. 

Many supermarkets have collection points for carrier bags and plastic films, you can find these using the Recycle Now: Local Recycling (opens new window) page. 

You only need to rinse recycling before disposing in your household recycling bins. If recycling is dirty, it can compromise the quality of recycling already in the recycling bin. Recyclables will be cleaned thoroughly during the recycling process.

Cardboard heavily contaminated with food such as takeaway pizza boxes should be placed in your household waste bin. These items can compromise the quality of recycling already in the recycling bin. A small amount of grease will not prevent a pizza box from being recycled.  

Unfortunately, as medicinal blister packs are made of mixed materials (plastic and foil) we are unable to accept these items in with our kerbside recycling collections. You can Boots: Recycle your medicine & vitamin blister packets (opens new window) at some Boots stores.

You can also check with your local pharmacy to see if they offer a take-back recycling service. If you are unable to find a recycling service nearby, these items can be put into their general household waste bins. Non-recyclable waste that is collected at the kerbside is diverted for energy recovery, with very little waste being sent to landfill.

All small rechargeable items presented should be removed by the crew unless incorrect items are presented, or if items have leaked. If this is the case, a sticker will be placed on the bag, advising why the item was not collected. 

Small electrical items can also be taken to your local Household Recycling Centre, and to many local retailers. See Recycle Now: Local Recycling (opens new window).for more information.

We have invested in an electric Refuse Collection Vehicle (eRCV) which will be trialled around the county by our waste collection contractor, Hills, to reduce carbon emissions. See the Electric vehicle press release (opens new window) for more details.

As this is our first electric waste vehicle trial, the primary goal is to understand the average distance it can travel per day. Our current collection rounds vary in distance from 25 miles to 125 miles, with the shorter rounds being mainly urban areas that are close to the depot and longer rounds rural areas on the county boundaries.

We have been working with our collection contractor Hills, to establish a trial plan which allows us to trial a range of collection routes, however, rounds further than 75 miles are less likely to be achieved and will require more extensive planning. 

Waste collection vehicles typically operate for long shifts, often driving long distances daily. As electric vehicles are more suited to shorter rounds which are closer to depots, it may not be appropriate to use eRCVs in more remote rural areas which are further from the depots where they can be charged. This trial will fully test the capabilities of eRCVs in Wiltshire and establish what percentage of collection routes could realistically be achieved using electric vehicles in the future.

This trial will be undertaken until we have sufficient data to make an evidence-based conclusions on the capabilities of eRCVs to be used for future waste collections in Wiltshire, and the vehicle will be expected to augment current and future waste collection resources.

We are currently looking ahead and planning what the future of kerbside waste collection services looks like in Wiltshire post 2026 when the existing contract with our service provider, Hills, ends. This planning is looking at how we can optimise the efficiency of the service in terms of improving our recycling rate and reducing household waste. We also need to ensure compliance with the Environment Act 2021, which will require the council to separately collect food waste from 2027. Therefore the procurement of  new waste collections vehicles will be largely informed by future kerbside service requirements post 2026, and the data from this trial will inform how many could be EVs.

The vehicle will be trialled at operating depots and assigned to household waste collection rounds, initially starting in largely urban rounds in the northern areas of the county including Calne and Chippenham. It will later be trialled in the city of Salisbury. The trial will later look to assess the vehicle's performance in semi-urban, semi-rural, and finally the mainly rural rounds. 

We will be working closely with our collections service provider, Hills, when designing the trial to determine which routes are most suitable initially, and arrangements are in place to make sure that where rounds cannot be completed by the EV, existing resources can be deployed to ensure collections are completed as scheduled. As the trial progresses and real-time data is obtained, we will be in a better position to understand the capabilities of the vehicles and select the most appropriate routes to be tested, ensuring that the vehicle is sufficiently charged to complete the assigned collection rounds.

Yes, the eRCV can collect the same capacity of household waste as the diesel RCVs.