Following its Full Council meeting on Wednesday evening, the GLI (Green Party, Liberal Democrats and Independent) administration of East Suffolk Council gained approval for plans that will see rubbish bins cleared every three weeks, instead of the current two. 

The approved plans will see the introduction of “twin stream" approach to collections, households will receive an extra wheelie bin or container, where paper and card can be placed to separate these items from plastics, metal, cartons, glass bottles and jars. In addition, a new weekly food waste collection will begin in Spring 2026. In total, each household will manage four bins instead of the current three.

The plans were approved much to the disappointment of the Conservative Group and many of the Labour Group. Both recognise and support the need for East Suffolk to improve its recycling performance. National targets require the Council to divert 60% of waste to recycling by 2030 and 65% by 2035. 

During the lively debate at Full Council, Conservative Councillors spoke in support of the plan in principal but raised strong concerns about the proposed three-week collections for waste and the lack of clarity on the details of the rollout. The Conservatives rejected the scheme; however, the GLI won by three votes.

Commenting on the plans for an extra bin to be delivered to each of the 117, 000 homes in the district, Cllr James Mallinder, former Cabinet member for the Environment said: 

‘I am really surprised and disappointed   there hasn’t been a cross-party committee established to guide Cabinet and Full Council. These changes will have such a huge impact to our residents this needs a proper debate.  From the result at Wednesday’s meeting the proposal only just passed so it is clear the Council as a whole is not happy in the direction the Greens are taking this policy.’

Cllr Mallinder continued: ‘Yes, we need to get better at recycling, but we should not be littering our pavements with more bins, increasing the carbon footprint of the Council and causing a huge confusion for our residents. ‘