A MAJOR shake-up to bin collections in Basingstoke, with pick-ups being changed from weekly to fortnightly, has had a mixed reaction.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is altering waste collections, meaning that both grey and green bins will be collected every two weeks from September 2026 - currently the grey bin is collected weekly. 

The decision comes as the authority will introduce a weekly food collection service from October 2025, with plate scrapings, peelings and other food waste going into the new bins supplied by the authority. 

The introduction of the service will be brought in ahead of the deadline set out in the Environment Act for having to bring in mandatory food waste collections, along with an average household waste target of 272kg per household per year. 

Borough households currently chuck away 567kg of waste per year – resulting in Basingstoke sitting 269th out of 317 authorities across England and fourth from bottom in Hampshire for recycling. 

Further changes proposed by Hampshire County Council could see recycling rates rise even higher. The changes would result in upgrades to the county council's recycling sorting plant and network which will mean residents will be able to put even more items into their green bins.

In future, this will include plastic pots, tubs, trays and food and drink cartons being collected for recycling in the borough.

Speaking at a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday, Cllr Laura James, cabinet member for residents’ services and housing, said: “There is no way that we can meet these targets by carrying on as we have been and introducing food waste collections alone will not get us there, it would be wrong to offer residents false choices.

“We will have to recycle more than twice what we do now.”

She continued: “There is a huge shift change that we all need to make to meet the Government’s targets. There is a lot of change coming and it is mandatory.”

The decision has had a mixed response from councillors and green campaigners.

Rowan Harding, chair of Greener Basingstoke, supported the changes having called for better recycling rates ‘for a very long time’.

In a statement, chair of Natural Basingstoke, Gill Smallman, said: “Natural Basingstoke wholeheartedly supports the proposals to introduce separate weekly kerbside collections for food waste, enabling this waste to be recycled to produce greener energy via an anaerobic digestion facility.”

While in support, opposition Conservative councillors also raised concerns and called for weekly collections of the green bin.

Speaking at cabinet, Cllr Sean Dillow said: “With the expansion of recyclable materials, the current fortnightly collection of green recycling bins could very well be insufficient, this could lead to overflowing bins causing unsightly and unsanitary conditions in our community.”

Cllr Jenny Vaux said: “My biggest concern is not to increase the frequency of the collection of our green bins, keeping these fortnightly, even though we will be significantly increasing the range of materials which can be recycled into these bins.”

Former council leader Simon Minas-Bound argued that this was the “biggest single service cut in the council’s history”, which was rejected by the administration.

Cllr Minas-Bound also called for residents to consulted on the scheme.

Posting on the Gazette’s Facebook page, residents have expressed their views.

Sandi Brewer said: “Sounds good to me. This system has worked well in other areas for years so no reason it can't work well here in Basingstoke. My only concern is having space for another bin in my kitchen and garden.”

Emma Burch wrote: “This sounds like a great plan, so many other councils already run schemes like this, we’re so far behind it’s embarrassing! As a family of five our recycling bin is always over full when collection comes round, I’d rather see the green bin collected weekly and the grey bin fortnightly, that’s what everyone should be aiming for, less waste, more recycling.”

While Claudia Harris posted: “This town has a major rat issue. Any lessening of bin collections or more food available to them will cause more issues.

“There will be another plague soon with the changes that are being proposed everywhere with bin collections not until every 2-3 weeks etc and then this sort of thing will just attract them even more. Terrible changes. There’s definitely bigger issues to be fixed first.”

Moore than 300 councils already carry out weekly collections of either the grey or green bins, including Hart District Council.