Plans to resume bulky waste collections in Birmingham in 'near future'

Those running Birmingham’s waste service have confirmed there are plans to resume bulky waste collections in the near future.

This particular service, alongside recycling and garden waste collections, was suspended last year as the bins strike took a toll on both the council and the city.

But amid major plans to transform Brum’s waste service, bulky waste is set to finally make a comeback.

Cllr Harris Khaliq (Better Birmingham Group, Ward End) – a member of a minority coalition which took over the council in the summer – told a meeting this week that conversations have been taking place on how bulky waste can be reintroduced.

Chris Smiles, head of waste and logistics at Birmingham Council, said: “Hopefully the plan that we’ll hopefully be presenting […] will look to bring bulky [collections] back as quickly as possible as part of the next phase of the transformation should we get the relevant sign off.”

“So they will be coming back.

“Just to manage your expectation, obviously we’re still working within industrial action so we probably won’t be able to work at the capacity that we did pre-industrial action.

“But we’re proposing to offer a service that will allow residents to have some collections.”

Cllr Mick Brown (Labour, Gravelly Hill) said that response would be “reassuring” for a lot of his residents.

The latest on bulky waste collections comes amid ambitions of transforming the waste service.

Two pilots were launched this year, with one in the north of the city involving the collection of household rubbish going from weekly to fortnightly, as well as the introduction of a second recycling bin and food waste collection.

A second pilot, which kept the weekly refuse collections, was also delivered to thousands of households across the Hodge Hill and Bromford, Moseley, Kings Norton South and Stirchley wards

After exploring both options, a recently-published council report said that the data showed that the first pilot “performed more favourably” than the other.

But decisions regarding the future of the waste service will still have to go through the council’s cabinet members.

A plan is expected to be presented to cabinet before the end of the year.