A council is planning to move to fortnightly waste collections from next year. 

Sandwell Council wants to move household waste collections across the borough from weekly to fortnightly as part of plans to save money.

The changes would see household waste collected every two weeks instead of one with recycling waste then collected in the intervening weeks. 

Sandwell Council, which covers Cradley Heath, Rowley Regis, Blackheath and Oldbury, said the “vast majority” of waste goes into the borough’s black bins and is not recycled.

The local authority said the changes would also save money as it looks to address a £20m gap to be able to balance its books next year. 

Sandwell ranks among the worst areas for recycling in England with not only low levels of recycling, but also high levels of contamination where the wrong waste is put in the wrong bins.

The council said having to dispose of waste was more expensive than recycling it. 

New laws mean the council has to address its poor recycling performance or could face “significant costs and penalties in the future.”

Sandwell Council’s 25-year contract with waste firm Serco is worth around £650m.

Cllr Keith Allcock, cabinet member for environment and highways at Sandwell Council, said: "Too much of what goes into our bins in Sandwell at the moment ends up being incinerated, so through these changes we hope to make it easier to recycle more of our waste.

“At the same time, the council needs to make savings to close our budget gap and the proposed new model would save money by reducing the cost of collecting waste, and reduce the amount we have to spend to dispose of waste.”

An email to councillors explaining the decision, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), said the plans were the “biggest changes to Sandwell’s waste collections in more than a decade.”

The changes would see general waste bins collected every other week with recycling collected in separate bins on alternate weeks.

Sandwell’s residents would also be given a new bin for paper and card waste with glass, cans and plastic recycled using another. 

The council’s deputy leader Cllr Paul Moore said: “Like all local authorities, we face significant financial pressure from the rising demand for our services, particularly for the support we provide vulnerable adults and children.

"At the same time, our costs are also going up due to inflation.

“Sandwell is not yet facing the extreme financial difficulties that some other local authorities are already dealing with.

"However, with the rising demand for our services we know that we must continue to manage our finances responsibly to avoid falling into these difficulties.”