Thomas McMenamin, Executive Officer – Roads & Neighbourhood Services
Publication:
This Technical Note will be published on the Council’s website following circulation to Members. Its contents may be disclosed or shared out with the Council.
The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide Elected Members with an update on the numbers of reported missed bins across all Service waste streams in 2025-2026
The information in the documents section below provides a breakdown of missed bins across each waste collection stream for the period of March 2025 to April 2026
The data has been extracted from the Customer Relations Management system, Citizen Hub. This information incorporates all reports through the online web platform and via the Customer Service agents
The Waste and Recycling Service continues to maintain a high level of collection reliability, with overall missed collections remaining well below 0.5% of total scheduled collections across all waste streams for 13 of the 14 months lists with the final month at 0.56%
Waste Services received 295 formal complaints in 2025/26. Of those complaints to Waste Services over 65% (192) are specifically in relation to missed bins. This is an average of 16 complaints per month
There has been an increase in the number of reported missed food waste collections in November 2025, and March & April 2026. During periods of increased pressure over the past 12 months, resources have been prioritised towards, residual, recycling and green waste collection services, resulting in food waste being the first service to have resources reallocated
Staff absence has been a significant contributing factor to the increase in missed collections. The Service has experienced consistently high absence levels in the past 12 months which has reduced operational resilience; increased the reliance on overtime; and reduced any availability to return to reported missed collections received through our Customer Services
platforms
Absent rate for frontline Waste Collection staff only.
