Ingatestone bin pilot

The pilot is taking place in 17 roads in Ingatestone. Here are the roads included in the pilot, listed alphabetically:

• Bakers Lane
• Bakers Mews
• Chapel Croft
• Disney Close
• Exley Close
• Fryerning Lane
• Market Place
• Meads Close
• Mellor Close
• Permberton Avenue
• Rectory Close
• Steen Close
• The Furlongs
• The Meads
• Trimble Close
• Wadham Close
• Willow Green

We selected this round in the centre of Ingatestone because it contains a representative selection of properties and households.

The first collection under the pilot will take place on Tuesday 7 October 2025.

The UK government has set a national target to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035. The recycling rate in Brentwood has been decreasing from 49% 10 years ago, to 37% in 2025. This is the lowest recycling rate in Essex and indicates a need for improvement. We want to trial this new collection methodology with residents to ensure it works before committing to rolling it out further.

We will welcome your feedback on the pilot and will get in touch with you in January to invite you to answer a satisfaction survey.

Disposable sacks are safer for our collection crews. Additionally, disposable sacks can be securely tied and do not need to be emptied into the back of a waste collection vehicle or wheeled bin. This means they result in less spillage and therefore reduces the amount of litter, leaving us with cleaner streets after collections.

Yes, the disposable recycling sacks are recyclable. They are single-use plastic and made from 97% recycled material. Once the recycling sacks have been used, they will be turned into fuel pellets.

You should hold on to your reusable bags as you may need to start using them again after the end of the pilot.

No, the new wheeled bin and sacks will be delivered free of charge.

A 180-litre bin is the standard size. Households of five or more people will be able to request a larger wheelie bin. To request a review, email bin.pilot@brentwood.gov.uk.

No changes are proposed. You can continue to use your existing food recycling caddy, and this will be collected weekly. If you don't have one, you can order a new caddy free of charge today by emailing bin.pilot@brentwood.gov.uk.

Your general rubbish will be collected every fortnight instead of every week. The frequency of the all the other collections will remain the same. If you recycle all you can, including your food by composting it or putting it in your food recycling caddy, you should find that the wheeled bin is enough to accommodate all your rubbish for two weeks.

A 180-litre bin should be sufficient for most households when utilising all the recycling services available.

However, a larger 240-litre bin will be made available on request for households who meet the following criteria:

• five or more people residing permanently in a household
• residents who have a medical condition requiring additional capacity (under the condition that the waste produced is non-clinical)
• residents who have two or more children in disposable nappies.

To request a larger bin, email bin.pilot@brentwood.gov.uk.

The following tips may help you reduce the amount of waste your household produces:

• make sure that all recyclable materials are properly sorted and placed in the recycling sacks 
• make full use of the separate food recycling caddy and glass box 
• buy products with minimal packaging, avoid single-use items, and choose products that come in recyclable packaging
• take advantage of our bulky waste collection service for items that do not fit in your bin

Visit local recycling centres to dispose of items that can be recycled but are not collected at the kerbside.

For more ideas on how to reduce the amount of waste you produce, visit Love Essex.

An analysis of the composition of household waste in Brentwood carried out in autumn 2024 showed that over 55% of what is currently placed in black bags could be recycled.

If you're recycling as much as you can each week and using all the recycling services provided, you will find that the waste that goes into your black bin is dramatically reduced. For more ideas on how to reduce the amount of waste you produce, visit Love Essex.

Over 80% of councils already collect general rubbish (black bag) fortnightly. The experience from those areas is that residents make more use of the recycling options so that their residual waste is greatly reduced. Our own analysis across Brentwood has shown that over half of what we put into black bags at present can be recycled, so if residents start recycling as much as they can the amount of black bag waste they will have to store will be reduced significantly.

There is no evidence from other councils that this is the case. Food will continue to be collected weekly and the remaining rubbish will be contained in your wheeled bin.

Households with residents who have a medical condition needing more capacity and households who have two or more children in disposable nappies will be able to request a larger 240-litre bin.

Evidence from other local authorities already collecting general rubbish in wheeled bins shows that placing these items in secure black bags in a container reduces the potential smell.

Essex residents can also benefit from a £30 refund on the purchase of cloth nappies. Find out more about the Love Essex cloth nappy scheme.

There is no evidence from other councils that alternate weekly collections increases fly-tipping. 

We will continue to provide information to residents and businesses about the importance of proper waste disposal and the legal consequences of fly-tipping. We will also provide clear information about waste collection schedules, recycling options, and alternative disposal methods. 

We will continue to monitor known fly-tipping hot spots to deter illegal dumping, encourage residents to report fly-tipping incidents, provide easy-to-use reporting tools and enforce strict penalties for those caught fly-tipping to deter this behaviour.

No, if you recycle all you can, you should find you can contain all your rubbish in your new bin. Any additional waste can be taken to Essex County Council recycling centres. For more information and to book a slot, visit Love Essex: Find a recycling centre.

On average, between 60 and 70% of the waste produce by a household can be recycled. The items you will be able to recycle will stay the same. 

• paper and cardboard, including newspaper and magazines, paper (not shredded), writing paper, envelopes, cardboard packaging, junk mail, telephone books and yellow pages, mail order catalogues, cardboard and corrugated card, cereal packets, cardboard egg boxes, greetings cards and wrapping paper without glitter or foil
• plastics, including drink and milk bottles, all plastic bottles including tops, yoghurt pots, margarine, butter and ice cream tubs, microwave meal trays
• metal food tins, drinks cans, including all steel and aluminium drink cans, biscuits and sweet tins, other food tins such as pet food tins, clean tin foil, tin foil trays, food trays, waxed drink containers, empty aerosol cans and jar lids
• mixed glass, including glass bottles and jars.
• cooked and uncooked food waste in your food recycling caddy.

For more information, visit Recycling.

If you have large cardboard boxes, you should fold them and put them together under your blue bag for paper and card.

Yes, but tailored advice will be provided on request and alternative options will be considered on an individual basis. Requests can be made by emailing bin.pilot@brentwood.gov.uk or calling 01277 312500.

 No, flats will continue to use communal bins.  

We support residents with disabilities now through assisted collections. Assisted collections will still be offered to support those residents with mobility challenges. To find out more information about the assisted collection service, visit household waste.

The assisted collection service will continue but residents will be asked to use the new container and sacks provided. These will be collected following the schedule residents will receive on the day of the container and sacks delivery (week beginning 15 September).

There are no plans to change the garden waste service at this stage.

No, there will not be a reduction to your council tax.

This new collection methodology is being trialled to improve the rate in Brentwood and to make our services more efficient. There will be no reduction in service as the same amount of waste will still be collected over the two-week period although we are expecting to see a reduction in residual waste and an increase in recycling. Any money saved will be reinvested in other essential services.

Doing nothing in the face of ten years of falling recycling rates is not an option. A range of government grants and financial support depend on us improving our recycling rates. Falling recycling rates also mean lost revenue as we receive payments for good quality recyclable paper, cardboard, metal and plastics.

In a worst-case scenario, if our recycling rates continue to fall we could even have a waste collection regime imposed on us. This is why we want to use this pilot to proactively improve our collection methodology and remain in control of a system that will work for the residents of Brentwood.

We will monitor tonnages of the different waste streams and compare them to the tonnages collected before the start of the pilot. We will also ask our collection crews for feedback, as well as inviting residents to fill in a survey to give their views on the trial collection service.