Alternate Week Collection - General Advice

To prevent maggots developing, flies must not be allowed to settle on food, either raw or cooked, at any time. This applies especially to meat. Listed below are some of the ways that you may find useful to avoid this problem.

1. Aim to never leave unattended food uncovered.

2. Wrap your food waste really securely twice or even three times if necessary.

3. Ensure that your wheeled bin lid is always kept closed, together with all other bins containing food waste.

4. Do not leave pet food exposed so that flies can lay thier eggs on it, and do ensure that all pet waste is tightly wrapped in good quality plastic bags or sacks.

5. Home compost as much of your organic waste (e.g vegetable peelings) as possible.

6. Ensure your bin is not split. If it is, please let us know and we will replace it.

7. Try to keep your bin out of direct sunlight.

8. Consider using natural insect repellants (such as citronella or tea tree oil) that you can smear on the rim of your bin lid. These are available at most chemists but please seek advise before using, if pregnant.

Maggots can form within 24 hours of flies laying their eggs on a food source. Maggots although unpleasant, are not a health hazard.

Why have Alternate Week Collection?

Mid Beds District Council is committed to operating Alternate Week Collection which has been sucessful in reducing waste and increasing recycling as well as keeping collection costs down.

Alternate Week Collection has reduced the total waste collected by an average of 40kgs per person per year. At the same time we have increased recycling from 16% in 2004 to 32.96% in 2006/7.

Over 200 councils collect residual waste on alternate weeks in a bid to drive down the amount of waste sent to landfill, and encourage residents' responsibility for their own household waste.

Nationally waste is increasing each year and now action is being taken by Government to reverse this trend, by issuing each country with a limit on how much waste they can landfill before significant fines of up to £150 a tonne are imposed. This allowance will drastically reduce over the next few years. If Bedfordshire exceeds its landfill allowance, the fines would place a significant burden on the council council element of your council tax and quite possibly a reduction in other services you may receive.

Why won't you collect weekly over the summer?

The climate is variable. Our winters can be warmer on occasions and English summers can be changeable, unlike the consistant conditions found in hotter European countries. A temporary summer weekly collection takes considerable planning and could not be arranged at a moments notice once a heatwave approaches.