Highland Council issues guidance on waste services during coronavirus outbreak
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Special guidance on what do with bins during the coronavirus crisis has been issued by Highland Council.
From today, the council has suspended the booking of new bulky uplift collections to allow staff to concentrate on providing regular waste collections.
A spokeswoman said: "Every attempt will be made for crews to deal with requests already booked but from now on householders will need to take their bulky items to one of the council’s household waste recycling centres."
The local authority has also suspended its paid-for brown bin garden waste collections to all households.
The spokeswoman added: "Anyone with garden waste is asked to take it to their nearest household waste recycling centre or consider home composting."
Anyone self-isolating due to displaying symptoms of coronavirus is asked to ensure that all waste items that have been in contact with the individual, such as tissues and cloths, are disposed of securely within disposal bags.
When full these bags should be placed in a second bag and tied and then stored for 72 hours before being put out for collection.
Other rubbish and recycling collections are operating as normal, however, due to staff shortages, the council is warning that they may need to suspend some services at short notice.
Carron McDiarmid, a council executive chief officer, said: “While we are doing our best to maintain our regular waste and recycling collections we need to be realistic and plan for staff shortages.
"We are therefore asking people to put out their bins for collection as normal for 7am on their scheduled day but if the bins are not emptied by 5pm please take them off the street and put them out again on the next scheduled collection day. Regular updates will be provided on the council’s website and social media channels.”
