Editorial Policy

1. Our Editorial Mission

UK bin collection is run by 300+ separate councils, each with its own bin colours, recycling lists, fees and reporting forms. The information is public — every council publishes it — but it’s spread across hundreds of council websites with very different navigation. Our editorial mission is to consolidate that into one consistent, plain-English layer that always points back to the council’s own page so readers can verify and act.

2. Quality Standards Every Council Page Meets

• The council name matches GOV.UK’s Find your local council directory
• The bin-day lookup tool URL is verified live and points to the council’s actual address-based search
• Bin colours and what goes in each are read from the council’s published recycling guidance, not generalised
• Garden-waste subscription fee, sign-up window and additional-bin pricing match the council’s current fees page
• Bulky-waste pricing and what counts as bulky match the council’s current bulky-waste page
• HWRC (tip) opening hours, address and any vehicle restrictions match the council’s HWRC page
• Missed-collection reporting window matches the council’s stated policy
• Bank-holiday changes are added when the council publishes the schedule shifts (typically December for Christmas, March/April for Easter, May for spring bank-holiday week)
• Assisted collection eligibility matches the council’s published criteria
• “Last reviewed” date appears on every page

3. Source Hierarchy

Full hierarchy with named sources, URLs and how each is used is on the Sources & Methodology page.

4. Verification — Our Seven-Step Process

1. Identify the right council page. We use the council’s main “bins and recycling” hub as the entry point, not a generic homepage that may have moved.
2. Confirm the council name and area. Council reorganisations happen — we cross-check against GOV.UK’s Find your local council directory.
3. Read the source page in full. Quick scans miss exceptions. We read the actual page, including any “important,” “service alert” or update banners.
4. Cross-check national framework. Where we describe a national rule (Simpler Recycling, the household duty of care, food-waste separate collection), we cross-check the wording against GOV.UK or DEFRA.
5. Test every URL live. Every link is clicked and confirmed before publication.
6. Verify fees against the council’s current fees page. Garden-waste and bulky-waste fees in particular get extra attention because they are the most likely to be out of date.
7. Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews end-to-end before the page goes live.

5. Update Cycles

“Last reviewed” date is on every council page.

6. Corrections Process

1. You report it. Email info@councilbincollection.org with subject “Correction” and the page URL.
2. We acknowledge. Within seven working days we confirm receipt.
3. We verify. An editor goes back to the council’s own page and confirms the current position.
4. We correct. If confirmed, the page is updated. Substantive corrections — wrong fee, wrong missed-collection window, wrong contact route — trigger a published correction note dated and described in plain English.
5. We tell you. The reporter is notified once the correction is live.

7. AI Tools and Authorship

We use AI tools as part of our content-production workflow. We don’t hide that and we don’t use AI as a substitute for human editorial judgement:

• AI may be used for first drafts, summarisation of council pages, formatting consistency and language polish
• Every council page is reviewed line by line by a human editor before publication
• Fees, contact details, schedule windows and link destinations are confirmed against the council’s own page by a human — never trusted to an AI summary
• AI-generated text that turns out to misstate a council policy is corrected through the standard corrections process
• We do not allow AI to invent council contact details, fabricate links, or describe procedures that aren’t in the source

8. Editorial Independence

We don’t accept payment from any council in exchange for editorial coverage or favourable presentation. We don’t accept payment from waste-collection contractors, recycling buy-back schemes, or commercial waste removers in exchange for being mentioned, recommended or omitted on council pages. The site is funded by display advertising on the principle that advertising and editorial are separate.

If a council asked us to remove a factual statement they didn’t like — for example, a description of a recent fee rise or a contractor change — we’d only do so if the statement was inaccurate. Our test for accuracy is the council’s own published information.

9. Advertising and Disclosure

Advertising on the site is clearly labelled, consistent with the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and the ICO/ASA’s guidance on online advertising:

• Display ads are visually distinct from editorial content and labelled where required
• Affiliate links — where we earn a commission for a referral — are disclosed in context
• Sponsored content, if it ever appears, is clearly identified as paid-for
• We don’t insert affiliate links into the editorial portion of council pages; the council link always comes first

10. Conflicts of Interest

• The editorial team is not employed by, contracted to, or financially connected to any UK council
• The editorial team is not employed by, contracted to, or financially connected to any waste-collection contractor
• We don’t accept gifts, hospitality or considerations from councils or contractors in exchange for coverage

If a future situation creates a potential conflict — for example, a contributor with prior employment at a council waste team — that contributor is not assigned to write or edit pages relating to that organisation, and the connection is disclosed.

11. Sensitive Topics

Bin collection intersects with sensitive issues — older residents’ assisted collections, accessibility for disabled residents, low-income households balancing garden-waste subscription costs, neighbourhood disputes about contamination, and council enforcement powers. We try to handle these fairly:

• We document assisted-collection eligibility plainly and link the application route — without moralising about why someone might need it
• Where the council operates concessionary fees for over-65s or low-income residents, we list those alongside the standard fee
• We don’t frame contamination issues as the resident’s fault by default — councils’ published rules are inconsistent and we describe them as published
• Enforcement coverage (fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping, side-waste charges) sticks to procedure and links the appeal route

12. Reader Feedback

We treat reader feedback as a quality input, not a marketing channel. Substantive feedback — corrections, suggestions, broken-link reports — is logged and addressed within seven working days. Feedback that is abusive, threatening or harassing toward our team or other readers is not engaged with and may be reported under our Terms of Service or to relevant authorities.

13. Language, Tone and Accessibility

• Council pages are written in plain English, accessible to a general adult audience
• We spell out acronyms (HWRC, WCA, DEFRA, EPA 1990) on first use
• We use UK English spelling and conventions (council, organisation, recognised, kerb)
• Where Welsh is the primary language for a substantial proportion of a council’s residents, we link the council’s Welsh-language pages where they exist; we don’t translate council pages ourselves
• We follow our Accessibility Statement, including WCAG 2.1 AA targets