Skip to main content
Elmbridge Borough Council

Services menu

  • My Account

Main navigation

  • Benefits and support
  • Bins, waste and recycling
  • Business
  • Business rates
  • Cemeteries services
  • Community safety
  • Community, health and wellbeing
  • Cost of living support
  • Councillors and decision making
  • Council Tax
  • Elections and voting
  • Environment
  • Explore Elmbridge
  • Housing
  • Leisure and culture
  • Licensing
  • Parking and roads
  • Planning
  • Shaping Elmbridge
  • Sports and health
  • Street cleaning
  • Sustainable Elmbridge
  • Your council
  • Future Surrey

Breadcrumbs

  1. Home

Service update: Waste collection

Currently there are some delays to waste collections in Elmbridge due to pressures impacting disposal arrangements, coupled with the extreme heat.

See below for garden waste collection information on Saturday 5 September and Saturday 12 September

We’re sorry that some residents continue to experience delays to their waste collections at the moment. 

The disruption has been caused by a series of issues relating to pressures affecting having to drive much further 3 days a week to where we can take and process waste, vehicle availability, extreme heat and staffing. The council is working with our waste contractor and Surrey County Council as the waste disposal authority to recover the service as quickly as possible. This includes bringing in additional crews and vehicles and negotiating closer tipping sites to reduce journey times. We are working to recover the service to a more stable collection as soon as we can however this is reliant on several factors out of the council’s control. 

While we are prioritising food, waste and recycling collections, this has caused delays to the collection of garden waste which is currently running behind.

Important: if your bin hasn’t been collected, please leave it out, including over the weekend, and crews will return as soon as they can.

Other services

Garden waste collections Saturday 5 September and Saturday 12 September

We recognise that the delays to the garden waste service this summer have been frustrating for residents, and we would like to thank you for your patience and apologise for the inconvenience caused. 

Collection delays have been caused by a combination of issues including having to drive much further three days a week to where we can take and process waste, vehicle availability, extreme heat and staffing. 

In order to fully recover the garden waste service, and to return the collections to their normal, scheduled day, Elmbridge Borough Council is working with our waste contractor, Amey, to bring in additional crews and support staff across the next two Saturdays to catch up on all overdue garden waste collections. The extra crews, in addition to those out normally Monday to Friday,  will work on Saturday 5 September and Saturday 12 September. A third Saturday on 19 September has also been prepared should this be required.

If your garden waste bin has not been collected on the first Saturday, please continue to leave it out for collection over the following two Saturdays. There is no need to contact us or report it as a missed collection. We are aware of the properties that require collection and will continue working through them as quickly as possible.

Once again, thank you for your patience as we continue working to restore the garden waste collection service.

New bin delivery

Some bin deliveries are taking longer than planned. We are sorry if you are still waiting for a new or replacement container. We are putting extra resource into deliveries to catch up. 

Assisted collections

If you receive an assisted collection you will also be impacted by the delays to collections explained above. In some instances, it may not be your normal crew collecting, but the crew attending will have details of where to find your bin. We are sorry if mistakes are made by unfamiliar staff. If you do experience a missed collection please report it.

Bulky waste latest

Bulky waste collections are operating, however to free up staff capacity to deal with other service delays, we have restricted the number of available collection slots temporarily. Please check back as where capacity allows, we may increase these again. 

Please be assured that our crews are working hard to catch up. This includes using additional vehicles and teams, as well as working longer hours and weekends to collect as much waste as possible each day. 

We expect disruption to continue for the next 3 to 4 weeks while these wider industry issues are resolved. Changes to recycling arrangements across the sector, including recent facility closures and capacity pressures, mean our crews are travelling further to dispose of waste, which is affecting how quickly they can complete their rounds. 

To make the best use of available facilities, collection days may vary and different rounds, including garden waste, will also be affected. While we aim to return within a couple of days, in some cases it will take a little longer. 

We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing. We’re doing everything we can to restore services to normal as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience in the meantime. 

More information: Joint Waste Solutions: Waste collection update

Help improve this site by giving feedback

Elmbridge Borough Council

Get in touch

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Jobs

Follow us

  • facebook
  • Instagram
  • linkedin
  • youtube
  • Shaping Elmbridge