Everything you need to know about your new bins
Vikki Irwin/BBCChanges to bin collections come into force today across Suffolk.
It will mean households will be required to separate recycling into additional bins, and collection times may change depending on where you live.
It comes after the government wanted to simplify recycling and standardise it.
It required all councils in England to collect glass, metal, plastic, paper, card and food and garden waste from 31 March 2026 - although some authorities in the country missed this deadline.
So what goes into which bin, and when will they get collected?
What goes into each bin?
Vikki Irwin/BBCAll the councils in Suffolk decided that 1 June would be an achievable start date for the new bin collections.
More than 860,000 new bins or caddies have been delivered to households over the last few months in preparation.
Households should have three bins and two smaller food caddies. They may also have a brown or green bin for garden waste, but this is an optional, chargeable service.
Ben Woolnough works at East Suffolk Council and explains what each bin is for.
He said the completely blue bin, or bin with a blue lid, will be used for cartons, plastic film, metal food and drink cans, and plastic pots.
"The brilliant new addition to this bin is that you can put glass bottles and jars in there," he added.
The next one is the black bin with a green lid.
"This is the brand new bin," said Woolnough, adding, "It is specifically for cardboard, paper, shredded paper and books."
The last of the free-to-collect large waste bins is the one with the grey or black lid.
Woolnough said: "There are variations of it, grey with black lids, or completely grey, but ultimately that is your bog standard normal waste bin, which is everything which can't go in any of the recycling and which isn't food waste."
What are the caddies for?
Vikki Irwin/BBCAlong with the new bins, two food caddy waste bins have been delivered to households. These will be collected weekly.
Woolnough said: "The little caddy is a handy one. So you can have that on your kitchen worktop. By all means, you can have your own personal version of it if you want as well. And you can get biodegradable bags that go in there, put your food waste in there, all your food scraps. And then you can take that outside and put it in the slightly larger brother of the collection bin."
Lastly, there is the garden waste bin, which not all households will have as it is a paid-for service.
Woolnough said garden waste bins can be brown or green, but will have had a brown lid put on them.
Woolnough acknowledged that the colours of the bins can be confusing but said to focus on the lid colour: "It's about consistent messaging, not just within East Suffolk but county-wide, because for Suffolk Recycling there's a county-wide initiative, so it's about consistency of lid colours."
What about the collections?
Vikki Irwin/BBCBabergh
- A general rubbish collection every three weeks
- A recycling collection for glass, plastics, metal and cartons every three weeks
- A paper and card collection every three weeks
- A weekly food waste collection
The council's garden waste collection remains a separate, optional, charged-for service occurring every two weeks.
East Suffolk Council
- A general rubbish collection every three weeks
- A recycling collection for glass, plastics, metal and cartons every three weeks
- A paper and card collection every three weeks
- A weekly food waste collection
The council's garden waste collection remains a separate, optional, charged-for service occurring every two weeks.
Ipswich Borough Council
- A fortnightly general rubbish collection
- A recycling collection for glass, plastics, metal and cartons every four weeks
- A paper and card collection every four weeks
- A weekly food waste collection
The council's garden waste chargeable collection service remains the same.
Mid Suffolk Council
- A general rubbish collection every three weeks
- A recycling collection for glass, plastics, metal and cartons every three weeks
- A paper and card collection every three weeks
- A weekly food waste collection
The council's garden waste collection remains a separate, optional, charged-for service occurring every two weeks.
West Suffolk Council
- A general rubbish collection every two weeks
- A recycling collection for glass, plastics, metal and cartons every four weeks
- A paper and card collection every four weeks
- A weekly food waste collection
The optional garden waste collection service, which is chargeable, will continue every two weeks, and the collection day will not change.
What if my bins have not arrived?
Vikki Irwin/BBCSome Suffolk residents told the BBC that they have not received their new bins.
All the councils involved in the rollout of the new collection services said they have been delivered to the majority of households, but there may still be some without.
East Suffolk council said they expected deliveries to be completed by the end of today and accepted there had been some "snagging" issues with such a large operation.
Babergh and Mid Suffolk Councils said it was a "huge logistical project" and therefore it was expected there still may be some households without bins.
West Suffolk Council said they were aware that some residents have not received their bins, and they would be delivering any missed bins that have been reported.
Ipswich Borough Council said more than 200,000 new containers for 68,000 properties had been delivered.
Have the changes been controversial?
Vikki Irwin/BBCAbout one in four councils in England previously said they did not expect to roll out the changes for the 31 March deadline. They attributed this to increased demand for new specialist vehicles, logistics and funding issues.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was giving out more than £340m in grants.
In Suffolk, the decisions to add new bins and change collection schedules had been met with some criticism.
In West Suffolk, when the changes were agreed at the council in October 2024, the Conservative opposition wanted reassurances that general waste collections would remain fortnightly.
In East Suffolk, new bin lids had to be procured, costing the authority £350,000. Opposition Conservative and Labour councillors called the move a "waste of money" and "nonsense". The Green Party-led authority said the proposal was the "most financially efficient route".
Mid Suffolk and Babergh councils acknowledged that changing to collections every three weeks would be a challenge and "unsettling".
Residents have also told the BBC they were struggling to find space for the additional bins.
All the councils have said that if finding space is an issue, people should contact the council for support.
Defra said: "For too long, households in England have been presented with a muddled and confusing patchwork of approaches to bin collections".
It added that the changes would help it meet its Simpler Recycling policy target, to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035.
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