Torbay Council and SWISCo would like to thank Torbay residents once again for your ongoing patience with delays to waste and recycling household collections.

Unfortunately, because the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading so quickly, the service is now experiencing an unprecedented situation, like other parts of the country. We have extremely high levels of absence due to staff having to self-isolate, with more than 20 frontline staff off sick, creating delays for around 30 collection rounds (they usually complete around 19 rounds per day).

We will still be collecting all waste and recycling from households and in most cases, we will continue to recycle as normal. Please note that in some circumstances, and where collections have fallen most significantly behind, we will be collecting all waste and recycling in one vehicle. None of it will be sent to landfill.

We apologise once again for any inconvenience caused but we hope everyone will understand that this is an extremely difficult situation.

Don’t forget if you have large amounts of recycling such as cardboard, glass bottles etc, you can book a slot at the Recycling Centre.  

Please note the quieter slots at the Recycling Centre are usually either first thing in the morning or after 3pm.