Charnwood Borough Council - Leading in Leicestershire

If you are unsure about when your COLLECTION DAY is you can find out by entering your postcode in to My Charnwood where you will find bin collection dates relevant to your area, together with your nearest recycling points.

Every local Council has a duty to collect household waste. Charnwood has a contract with a company called Veolia Environmental Services to provide this service on our behalf.

This page provides useful information about the black bins and sacks, including how to obtain them and what goes in them. See navigation on the right for information about collection arrangements and TIPS.

Most residents are provided with wheeled bins in which to store their refuse, others, where the use of a wheeled bin is not practical residents are provided with black sacks free of charge. Some, such as those who live in apartment blocks, have the use of communal containers. All residents in Charnwood have a minimum fortnightly collection from their homes.

What goes in the Black Bin or Sack?

Black bins or sacks can be used for all household waste which can't be recycled using the box or sacks provided for this purpose - see our recycling pages for more information.

PLEASE NOTE: Low energy light bulbs should not be placed in the wheelie bin OR in the recycling sacks. Instead they should be taken to a Household Recycling and Waste Site. These are located at Railway Terrace, Loughborough, Hathern Road, Shepshed or Cemetery Road, Sileby and any questions about disposal at these sites should be directed to Leicestershire County Council, as they run the sites. For more information about low energy light bulbs, including what to do if a bulb breaks, visit the DEFRA website.

How can I get a wheeled bin?

Wheeled bins were issued to most properties when the changes were made to the refuse collection service (during 2004 and early 2005). The bin remains the property of the Council and must be left with the property when you move house. Properties without wheeled bins can request one free of charge but please bear in mind that the bin must be stored off the public highway on non-collection days.

There are both smaller wheeled bins (140ltr), and larger wheeled bins (340ltr); if you wish to apply for either of these, please contact us.

Wheelie Bin Dimensions

Volume (ltr)	Height (mm)	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)
* only available for the black wheelie bins.
140	1070	480	550
240	1070	575	730
360*	1080	580	875

If your bin is broken through general wear and tear, or damage has occurred during collection the Council will repair or replace free of charge please contact us to report such an incident. However if a wheeled bin has been damaged through misuse a charge will be made for its repair or replacement.

You may want to mark your bin in some way to identify it from others. If you do so please take care to not damage the bin. It is your responsibility to keep your wheeled bin clean. You can either clean it yourself (a rinse every month or so is usually more than sufficient) or contact a private specialist company – check the local telephone directory for details.

How to avoid getting maggots in your bin.

High temperatures speed up the life cycle of the house fly which causes some of them to reach a larger size and become noticeable.

We always had organisms like this around even in the days of the black sack but they would have gone with the sack or scuttled off into the garden and not been so noticeable.

The advice is to wrap waste food in something airtight (any plastic bag will do, preferably squeezing the air out) before flies have time to land and lay eggs on it, keep the bin lid shut and keep the bin in the shade if possible.

How can I get black sacks?

Black sacks are supplied free of charge to households that do not have the provision for a wheeled bin (and as agreed with the Council). The bags will be delivered on the same week as your recycling week. Please see the previous sections for instruction on how to correctly use your black sacks. If you are using black sacks but would like to have a wheeled bin instead please contact us for further advice.

Residents using a communal bin will need to provide their own sacks.

The standards you can expect?

We try to maintain the highest standards in our refuse collection work, we monitor:

• The cost of waste collection
• The percentage of missed collections, and the number of these put right by the end of the next working day
• Your satisfaction with the service we provide

We report on our performance in these and other areas in our Best Value Performance Plan every April, and also publish our targets for improving performance.