Lancaster City Council has announced a timeline of improvements to household waste and recycling services that will support residents to recycle and reduce waste.
Following approval by the city council’s cabinet earlier this year, a cross-party working group has collaborated with council officers to determine how this should be implemented to best address residents’ needs.
The service changes will be introduced in three phases from September 2025 to April 2026.
The first phase is to replace the current 55 litre recycling boxes with 240 litre wheelie bins to increase recycling capacity and reduce contamination rates.
Council crews will remove the boxes on a recycling collection day – for recycling – from 22nd September 2025, to February 2026, and replace with new wheelie bins the same day.
The second phase involves establishing a weekly food waste recycling service to all residents as part of the governments national waste strategy. This will help to divert waste that ends up in landfill or incineration that could instead be converted into fertiliser or biofuel.
From 9th February to 30th March 2026, residents will receive everything they need to get started — a seven litre kitchen caddy for inside, a 23 litre caddy for outside with a locking mechanism, a pack of kitchen caddy liner bags and an information leaflet.
Food waste collections will begin the week after delivery of the caddies, and the waste will be taken to Lancashire County Council’s Farington Waste Recovery Park, where existing equipment will be used to convert food waste into electricity.
The third phase will begin from April 2026, when fortnightly collections of non-recyclable waste (grey bins); plastics, glass and cans; and paper and cardboard, will change to three-weekly collections.
The move to a three-weekly household waste collection is in line with the Government’s Simpler Recycling principles to help increase the amount of waste that is sent to recycling.
The Council says evidence from other councils that have moved to three-weekly collections show that it has significantly increased recycling rates, a claim born out by data gathering for most councils in this data, published in 2018.
A number of councils have used three-weekly refuse collection for several years (PDF link) including Bury, which implemented it back in 2014, Oldham, Salford City Council and Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council.
Council officers say they understand that not all residents, such as those in terrace houses or flats, have space at their property to accommodate additional external bins or instead use communal bin stores and bring-sites. They say Waste Consultation and Engagement Lead Officers will visit these households between now and April 2026, to support and find solutions on a case-by-case basis.
Councillor Paul Hart, Cabinet member for Environmental Services, said: “We’re delighted that residents will benefit from these important changes to our waste collection services.
“The capacity of the current recycling boxes is no longer adequate for most households and as a result, a lot of cardboard ends up saturated by bad weather – which cannot be recycled – and recycling is littering neighbourhoods.
“Whilst the decision to introduce food waste collections has been made by Government, it aligns with Lancaster City Council’s commitment to move towards zero residual waste to landfill and incineration, and follows recommendations made by the Lancaster District People’s Jury.
“We’re confident there will be much more space in grey bins to accommodate the change to three-weekly collections. However, we understand that not all residents will have space for additional bins outside their property, and that’s why our officers will work with them to find solutions that suit their needs.”
The council has received around £1.46 million in funding from the Government to support the roll-out of food waste collections and this will be used to purchase new vehicles and food waste caddies for households.
The Government’s new Simpler Recycling legislation requires all councils in England to collect food waste separately by 31 March 2026 and increase the amount of waste that is sent to recycling. The proposals to modernise and improve the council’s recycling and waste collections was approved by Cabinet on May 20, 2025.
The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on 28th May 2025 and determined that a cross-party working group should be set up to collaborate with council officers to determine how the service changes should be implemented to best address residents’ needs and make appropriate policy recommendations to Cabinet. The Waste Collection Policy Implementation Group was convened soon after and work is ongoing.
• To find out more about the changes and view a list of frequently asked questions, please visit: lancaster.gov.uk/wastechanges. Residents can also email wastechanges@lancaster.gov.uk or call 01524 582491 for additional support
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