Report a missed bin or box collection

Catch up collections

Where possible, we try to arrange a catch-up collection within 48 hours of your scheduled collection day. Please see the below guideline for the timeframe of when we will try to catch up with a missed collection. 

On some occasions we may not have the operational capacity to do this and your next collection will be on your next scheduled collection day. If we have not collected your bin within the above timeframe, please retrieve your bin and place it back within the boundary of your property until the night before your next scheduled collection. 

Sometimes we are unable to collect from properties across the city. Typically, this impacts under 1% of properties each week.

Why we miss collections

We miss collections because:

• our vehicle may have been unable to gain access to your property (for example roadworks or other parking obstructions)
• of operational reasons - sometimes, at short notice, our crews or vehicle are not available on the day and we run out of our limited spare capacity on the day
• bins contain contaminated materials and we need to reject the collection (please ensure your bins are presented with the correct materials so that they are not rejected). Find out more about what we can and cannot collect in each bin.
• as demand changes, our rounds sometimes become too large for a crew to collect and we need to reallocate the work onto other rounds
• we may encounter delays earlier in the round such as waiting to tip a full load of recycling or waste materials

What happens next after you report a missed collection to us 

Your report will be passed to our operations team. 

Each morning, before crews go out, our operations team assess whether they can try to arrange a follow up collection. We always aim to do this for our communal collection points. If we cannot arrange a follow-up collection, your collection will need to wait until your next regular collection day. This is most likely the case for wheelie bin collections. 

Currently our system cannot notify residents what decision our operational team took about your missed collection. We are making changes to address this and expect to have this in place later this year.

Usually, a missed collection is an isolated event. In a small number of cases, where significant adjustments to rounds need to take place, it can take a few weeks for collections to return to an acceptable standard.

What we are doing to improve the service in the future

Our teams continue to work hard to improve the collection service, we are doing this by:

• introducing new customer contact systems later in 2025 which will offer a more precise and personalised service
• replacing our oldest and most unreliable vehicles and ensuring collections are continually shared appropriately across our crews
• reviewing our rounds on an ongoing basis to ensure they have time to carry out all planned collections.

We expect these changes will continue to improve the service over the coming months. The information you have provided is valuable and helping us improve the service we provide.