Remembering bin day and putting the right boxes out for rubbish and recycling on time is a surprisingly difficult challenge in today’s busy world.

If you’ve got an early morning collection, it can be easier to put everything out the night before, but it’s a real chore to get up from your warm sofa and face the chilly air on a winter’s night.

And even worse if you’ve also got to take out the smelly food waste.

But you do it regardless because you want to keep your house clean and tidy.

So when it doesn’t get picked up, you can be forgiven for getting pretty angry with the council.

In 2019, Richmond Council have missed bin collections on more than 3,400 occasions, according to a Freedom of Information Request sent by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Some of these were for justified reasons – such as your bin not being placed in the correct location by 6am, or if you’ve put something in your bin that you shouldn’t have, but others are mistakes and have been reported to the council.

But in 2018/19, Richmond collected 75,100 tonnes of household waste overall, including 31,900 tonnes of recycling.

Out of the 236,756 household waste collections made each year, the missed collections only account for around 0.02 per cent of total collections.

June 2019 saw the most missed collections this year, with 417 cases logged. This was followed by 409 cases in July, showing that the summer months seem to be a high point for an increase in missed collections.

By contrast, February 2019 was the least problematic , with just 239 missed collections.

A spokesperson for Richmond Council said: “The Council seeks to provide a consistent waste and recycling collection service. Summer months are popular gardening months and we collect more garden waste during this time. This period also coincides with contractor crew staff being on holiday and using agency staffing to cover. These factors can often mean that we receive a higher number of missed collection reports related to this service.”

The data for each month (until October 2019) can be found below:

  • January 2019 - 366
  • February 2019 - 239
  • March 2019 - 322
  • April 2019 - 270
  • May 2019 - 350
  • June 2019 - 417
  • July 2019 - 409
  • August 2019 - 384
  • September 2019 - 337
  • October 2019 - 341

What do I do if I think the council have missed my bin collection?

Richmond Council says you should first check:

If your waste and recycling was placed in the correct location/container/sack by 6am.

There isn’t a tag on your waste or recycling to tell you why it was not collected.

It’s after 3.30pm on the day of the collection or the rest of the street has been collected.

You know the correct collection day for your property.

You have read all the guidance for house and flat collections, and garden recycling

If you still think your bin should have been collected you should fill in the form on the council’s website at: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/report_a_missed_collection

Once it has been reported the council should return to your property and collect the missed items within two working days.