The chief executive of Lancaster City Council has called on residents to be patient as the changes to bin collections continue to be rolled out across the district.
Mark Davies, chief executive of Lancaster City Council, has outlined the challenges the authority has faced in implementing the changes, and called for patience while the service ‘beds in.’
From this week, bins in the Lancaster and Morecambe District will be collected on a cycle of every three weeks instead of two.
Collections of non-recyclable waste (grey bins), plastics, glass and cans (red bins), and paper and cardboard (yellow bins), will change from a fortnightly cycle to every three weeks — with one bin emptied each week on the same day.
This forms part of a wider range of changes to Lancaster City Council’s household waste service that started in September 2025.
Smaller recycling boxes have been replaced with wheelie bins and weekly food waste collections are being reintroduced, with more caddies being delivered to households this month.
These changes were prompted by the Government’s Simpler Recycling policy that aims to increase local authority recycling rates in England to at least 65 per cent by 2035 and half all residual waste sent to landfill or incineration by 2042.
‘’Following the changes to our waste and recycling services, I’d like to thank residents for your patience as the new arrangements bed in,’’ said Mr Davies (pictured below).
‘’Every single week, we collect waste and recycling from more than 60,000 properties across the district. The changes we’ve introduced are some of the biggest to household collections in a generation and are necessary to meet new Government recycling regulations.
‘’Introducing new bins, calendars and collection patterns at this scale is a significant operation, and one we do our very best to get right.
‘’While the vast majority of collections are running as expected, as with any service change of this size I know there are some teething problems as the new arrangements settle in. Understandably these cause frustrations for which I am sorry.
‘’I do want to reassure residents that we are well resourced and have teams in place to respond quickly when issues are reported and to keep the service running smoothly.
‘’Thank you for bearing with us, and a huge thank you to our waste and customer services teams, who are working hard every day to support households through these changes.’’
Changes to waste collection across the Lancaster and Morecambe District got under way last year.
It began with the replacement of 55 litre recycling boxes with 240 litre wheelie bins for for glass, plastic and tins; and cardboard and paper
The second phase was the return of weekly food recycling, with residents being given a new seven-litre kitchen caddy and a 23-litre external food waste bin - or communal bin where appropriate - to recycle food separately from their other waste.
To find out more about this support and view a list of frequently asked questions, visit HERE or call customer services on 01524 582491.
The frequency of garden waste, food waste, and clinical waste collections will remain the same and assisted collections will continue.
Residents are encouraged to check the new collections calendar for three-weekly collections dates.
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