![\"Bins](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_JS391385746.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRecycling collections in Birmingham was suspended in February 2025 – around 16 months ago<\/p>\n
11:31, 02 Jun 2026Updated 12:01, 02 Jun 2026<\/p>\n
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Bins filled with rubbish in Selly Oak, Birmingham in September 2025(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n
Plans to restart recycling collections in Birmingham are \u2018on pause\u2019 amid uncertainty over the future political leadership of the city council.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s recycling collections were suspended in February last year \u2013 around 16 months ago \u2013 due to the impact of the ongoing bins strike.<\/p>\n
They were planned to be brought back as part of a project to transform the waste service, which was set to be rolled out from this month onwards after initially being delayed last year due to the strike.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Birmingham remains in leadership limbo – where parties stand on critical coalition talks<\/a><\/p>\n However, Birmingham City Council<\/a> currently remains without political leadership after the May local elections<\/a> saw the splintering of Brum\u2019s politics and the rejection of the two-party system.<\/p>\n The mishmash of various groups and personalities now sitting in the council chamber means no party has the numbers to take control of the local authority themselves.<\/p>\n This is why talks are under way to try and form a coalition in a bid to set up a stable administration that can run the city council in the coming years.<\/p>\n This means the planned changes to the waste service \u2013 including the return of recycling collections \u2013 have been put on hold until the position of the new political leadership is made clear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe planned changes to the waste collection service (fortnightly household waste collection, a second recycling bin and the full food waste rollout) will not progress whilst we await the new political administration of the council,\u201d a council spokesperson said this week.<\/p>\n A general view of Birmingham City Council House in Victoria Square(Image: Christopher Furlong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cAs the changes were due to start on a phased basis in June, some residents will already have received information about changes to the service, including changes to collection dates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are sorry for any confusion this causes, we are keeping the existing service and will provide a further update once we have a position from the new administration.<\/p>\n \u201cThose residents currently part of the new food waste pilot will continue to receive that service.\u201d<\/p>\n The council confirmed today that these major plans being halted include the return of recycling collections.<\/p>\n A meeting has reportedly been scheduled for Friday to decide the next leader and administration of the council.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Birmingham parents demand action from city’s future leaders amid suburb’s ‘road rage nightmare’<\/a><\/p>\n All parties in the build-up to last month\u2019s local elections described resolving the bins strike dispute and improving the waste service as an urgent priority.<\/p>\n When it comes to plans to introduce fortnightly collections of household rubbish, the Birmingham<\/a> Liberal Democrats<\/a> said before the elections that they would \u201cmaintain weekly collections until services have shown themselves to be completely reliable for a significant level of time\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked whether the Green Party<\/a> would continue with plans to introduce fortnightly collections, Coun Julien Pritchard said before May 7: \u201cNo party is going to have an overall majority, we\u2019re going to have to see what all the parties around the table are saying.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the most important thing is to get the waste service to be reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n Coun Robert Alden, the leader of the Conservatives, also pledged prior to the elections that the Tories<\/a> would keep weekly bin collections.<\/p>\n Birmingham Labour leader Nicky Brennan addresses the council chamber<\/p>\n Labour<\/a> and Reform UK<\/a> have ruled themselves out of being involved in a coalition to run the council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recycling collections in Birmingham was suspended in February 2025 – around 16 months ago 11:31, 02 Jun 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2449,2774,61,1397,48375,2053,3596,89136,229,70,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-627948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-birmingham-bin-strike","tag-birmingham-city-council","tag-conservative-party","tag-environment","tag-green-party","tag-labour-party","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-local-elections","tag-politics","tag-reform-uk","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_JS402559175.jpg\")
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