Residents' black wheeled bins are collected and emptied on a regular collection day each week, and we will tell you if we plan to change that date. There are some changes over holiday periods, and residents receive a calendar each year with full details of the collection programme, including dates for their recycling collections of paper and (for many properties) garden waste. There are black bins for household waste, and for many residents green bins for garden waste, brown bins for recyclable items like glass and cans, and a sack for magazines, newspapers and catalogues.
Every week we collect household waste from over 135,000 homes. That's the equivalent of over 7 million bins emptied every year - some 400 tonnes every day.
On average each person produces some 520 kilos of waste a year. The council provides most domestic properties with a 240 litre capacity wheeled bin for domestic use as well as opportunities to recycle much of it.
Please make sure that your wheelie bin is placed at the edge of your property from 7am on your regular collection day. The bin should not be overfilled because the lifting equipment on the vehicles, and the operatives themselves, cannot take bins that are overflowing or full of heavy items.
The council's cleansing team, based at Hindley, operate the refuse and recycling collection services.
In 2000 a private sector company, Waste Recycling Group plc (external Link), was awarded the contract to manage Wigan Council's municipal waste for an initial period of 10 years.
Follow the FAQ link to find answers to some frequently asked questions about waste collections. Only certain items can go into the black wheelie bin - click the FAQ link to find out more.
Trade Waste
Trade waste and building material such as rubble, tiles and wood are not acceptable in the black wheelie bins. For commercial operations, the waste management team have complied a directory of firms who collect trade waste. You can download a copy here (.pdf, 224kb) (please save paper and avoid printing it out).
The Environment Agency NetRegs team have also produced a guide for small businesses which aims to assist them to locate their nearest location to recycle a wide variety of different waste. Visit the Environment Agency NetRegs website (external link).
Recycling
Residents can take domestic waste to any of the borough's five household waste recycling centres, and recycle materials such as glass and cans at over a hundred and fifty local recycling points. The council also provides collection for materials including fortnightly collections of paper from all homes. Residents are encouraged to recycle as much as they can and make informed choices about what they buy and then throw away.
Household Waste Recycling Centres
The council encourages residents to recycle as much of their waste as possible using the various doorstep collection services, or to take materials to one of the borough's five household waste recycling centres.
