Nearly two months into a ‘Simpler Recycling’ scheme for Thanet, complaints of unemptied waste bins and food caddies continue.
Residents are reporting missed collections across the isle as Thanet council is still getting to grips with introducing a full recycling service to approximately 27,000 households.
The rest of Thanet already had separate food, recycling and waste collections but this has now been extended to all households due to a government requirement that came into effect in April.
Rubbish has been piling up with some residents in the Upper Dumpton Park Road area not having had a collection for several weeks.
Last month resident Len Hunt, who lives in Ramsgate’s Turner Street, has blasted the service, saying: “They need to sort this out. People are very very angry.
“No-one in this road has received anything except the leaflet to say collections were changing. There have been no caddies or bags so the only thing we can do is put the rubbish out in seagull proof bags.
“I’m disabled and live in a two room apartment and I have had to keep all my rubbish in my home.
“There has been almost six weeks of inaction. We are having to keep rubbish in our homes while it decomposes as we do not want it causing a nuisance outside.
“We need urgent action. It is a complete nightmare.”
On June 2 he said he and his neighbours finally received their food bins and bag kits.
He added: “50 days! That’s how long it has taken to provide me and my neighbours with the approved containers and bags that are now mandatory to have waste collected from our homes.”
Len also took a swipe at Cabinet member for waste services Steve Albon for his ‘sad response’ to the issue and thanked Ramsgate councillor Becky Wing for her support.
Thanet council leader Rick Everitt has today (June 4) issued a statement on the situation, saying the volume of waste being put out exceeds recycling and has led to ‘unbalanced’ collections.
He said: “We know that in recent weeks our household waste and recycling collections have been disrupted for some of our residents. Your councillors live in Thanet too, so we see the issues with bin collections firsthand.
“I want to assure you that we’re closely monitoring the situation and making immediate operational improvements to get things back on track.
“The root of the issue is that in April we started Simpler Recycling which is a government requirement to offer all households a recycling service. This is a positive change that benefits our environment but it’s had a wider impact.
“While most Thanet residents already had a full recycling service, around a third, 27,000 households didn’t.
“We’re pleased that since the changes started, we’ve seen an increase in the amount of recycling we collect. However the amount of general waste being put out for collection by households whose services have changed far exceeds the volume of recycling.
“This has unbalanced the collections from week to week and has resulted in some collections being late and others being missed.
“No households are being asked to store more waste than before. We’re asking people to separate waste into the appropriate categories. Food waste, which can be the most difficult waste type to keep, is now collected every week for all households in Thanet.
“2025 data shows that 45.9% of Thanet’s residual waste could have been recycled. Separating waste would make a real difference to our ability to collect it. And make a difference to the environment.
“Focusing our efforts on getting waste and recycling right won’t mean less beach or street cleansing, particularly as we head towards summer. We’ve already put additional resources into beach cleansing for this year.
“When something like waste collection changes, we know it takes time for things to adjust and we’d like to thank residents for their patience and cooperation.
“The service is not at the standard residents rightly expect and all councillors are determined to get it back to where it needs to be.”
“If your bin isn’t collected on the day it’s due then please leave it out when you can and we will get to it as soon as we are able. We always aim to make this situation the exception.”
Has anyone on TDC been sacked or removed from their post over this chaos?
I thought not.
Not had any general waste collected on my road in Ramsgate since 1 May. TDC useless in sorting the situation – I have phoned many times – their IT system to deal with this ‘service’ is totally unfit for purpose. Next general waste collection (which may or may not actually happen) is not scheduled until 12 June which will be 6 weeks of accumulated general waste and counting. And, it’s anyone’s guess whether they’ll pick up the recycling tomorrow …
Ah there you are then-not the fault of TDC being incompetent as always, it is the peoples fault for not doing it right-despite the fact they haven’t even been given the correct receptacles to do it or people collecting it. Why doesn’t the council leader admit they haven’t got the staff to do it?
Strange Mr Everitt talks about getting things back on track, when they clearly weren’t on track to begin with. Like the ‘digital passports’ that were going to solve everything that crashed & still aren’t working-so it is the trusty physical document & stamp as expected as we saw on the bank holiday to France fiasco recently. Yet still the Liebour war criminal & war profiteer Toady Bliar is pushing for us all to have digital id forced on us so he & his kid can profit.
TDC-all the money to pay people to graffiti (sorry modern art) the bins on the seafront to match the awful rubbish apparently done by the same grifters at Arlington & around the corner in a totally pointless waste of money, yet can’t collect residents bins or sort out the year after year dumping of rubbish on the beaches on bank holiday weekends.
Where’s the accountability ? How on earth is Councillor Steve Albon still Portfolio Holder for these services ? They have completely fallen over on his watch.
I suggest if they are serious about sorting it out they get politicians and managers in who are capable of delivering it.
Of course some households are going to have far more “waste” than recycling to collect, they did’nt get any bins/bags to recycle with.
So the unbalanced collections excuse is of the councils own making, seemingly impossible to acknowledge the whole thing has been mishandled spectacularly.
Get rid of the useless Albon, he cannot organise anything
Inconsiderate parking can stop lorries from going down roads. This I suspect is the reason for the 2nd poster’s woes. I’ve seen it happen, and noticed only when the rubbish is still there.
However, I suspect there is a scalability issue over the explosion in housing, and not just the introduction of the streamlined bin collection scheme.
Just take your excess waste to the recycling centre. Simple, right?
A bit difficult on my bicycle (and no bus stops there!).
Even moreso on a Mobility Scooter! Did get my Red bag collected this morning, but not the large cardboard box that had contained some disability equipment. Correction, half of the cardboard box was removed, and the other half left in my front garden, although I am down for an “Assisted” collection! The emptied Red Bag was carelessly thrown into the front garden, where I couldn’t reach it, Duuuurh!
Seems to me this was largely a problem that didn’t need fixing!
Dubious Cat
Very good points
Has TDC increased the number of bin wagons and staff to cover all these new builds that are being built all over thanet ?
How many business use public bins ?
How many households use the public bins?
This is fly tipping.
I can believe the problem of getting the wagons down certain roads. We have had a few collections missed because the parking at the entrance is blocked with cars.
Yes the roll out of this new system has been shocking, and does seem to fit tdc inability to do anything right.
If entrances to cul-de-sacs are blocked by cars, then the binmen should drag them that little bit further. It’s not like they have to carry them or sweep up or anything these days.
No Dubious Cat, in my circumstance the failure of TDC to pick up rubbish has nothing to do with inconsiderately parked cars. The entire road is double yellow lines: it is a busy thoroughfare road and cars do not park illegally on it.
And again, no, it is not easy to take excess waste to a recycling centre if, as I do, you do not own a car and rely on public transport.
Your thinking in this regard is as flawed as TDC’s ability to manage waste collection services. Previously, in the 10+ years I have lived at my current Ramsgate address, I never had any waste collection problems. The problems only started when this new system was introduced. Go figure …
Ditto here in Birchington. No blocked roads, and a near-perfect service until the last few weeks.
This poor service has been going on way before the new collections started in April. We have an inconsistent recycling and waste paper collection sometimes either the paper bags are left or the recycling bin is left you never know which or when the are coming back to collect the one that was left. I think the new government recycling rule is just an excuse for not enough staff or vehicles or maybe badly planned runs.
UTTER RUBBISH THIS COUNCIL-NEEDS CHUCKING IN THE BIN.
My comment from October 2025 when these changes were first announced by TDC….
“If we’ve learnt anything about the TDC waste and recycling management over the years it’s that this change will be a complete mess and appallingly managed locally”
What a surprise,
But how can it be difficult, my plastic was collected but cardboard left worked fine for years now doesnt