Waste Collection Commitment - Recycling & Waste Customer Charter

Southend Borough Council has signed up to the Waste Collection Commitment, a voluntary agreement to ensure that your needs remain central to the design and delivery of our recycling and waste collection services. 

To outline our commitment to you we have developed the following Customer Charter to clearly communicate what can be expected from us, and equally what role you can play, to ensure that the delivery of our services meets the high standards that we continually strive to achieve.

Customer Charter

1. We will explain clearly what services you can expect to receive
2. We will provide a regular and reliable collection service
3. We will provide you with relevant and clear information regarding your collections - including changes resulting from public holidays
4. We will consider any special requests that individual households may have
5. We will design our services and carry out collections in a way that doesn't produce litter
6. We will collect as many materials for recycling as we can and explain to you what happens to them
7. We will explain clearly what our service rules are and the reasons for them
8. We will tell you in good time if we have to make changes to your services, even temporarily
9. We will respond to formal complaints we receive about our services
10. We will tell our residents about this commitment to collecting waste

What you can do:

• Only put your recycling, food waste, garden waste or refuse out on the day of your collection by 7am. Please ensure that it is clearly visible and on the inside edge of your property at the nearest point to the public highway. Please do not place it on the footpath or verge.
• If your collection is missed, and you have presented your items as above, please report it to us and we will endeavour to return and collect within two working days from the day of the report. You can report a missed collection using the online form on the right hand side of this page.
• Reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. You can now recycle most things from the kerbside. Other items may be recycled at the Household Waste Recycling Centres. And remember that reducing the amount of waste which is produced in the first instance is best.
• Wrap any dangerous broken glass jars or bottles in thick newspaper or a cardboard box before placing it in your pink sack.
• Remove any problem items from your sack or food waste bin if you receive a sticker (placed on sacks) or a hanger (placed on blue food waste bins) indicating that the wrong items have been included. These can be presented on your next scheduled collection day once the items and sticker/hanger have been removed.