Sources & Methodology

1. Our Editorial Mission for Sourcing

Every fact on a council page must be traceable back to a primary, authoritative source — most often the council’s own website, GOV.UK, DEFRA, or a devolved-nation environment body. If we can’t show where something came from, we don’t publish it. That principle is the foundation of every other process on this page.

2. Source Hierarchy — Six Tiers

Not all sources are equal. We rank them by authority and start at the top, moving down only when a higher-tier source doesn’t address the question:

3. Tier 1 — Individual Council Websites

The council’s own website (almost always a .gov.uk domain) is the authoritative source for everything specific to that area: bin-day lookups, recycling rules, garden-waste subscription fees, bulky-waste pricing, HWRC opening hours, missed-collection windows and contact details.

Examples of council websites we reference (each verified live):

• Birmingham City Council — birmingham.gov.uk
• Manchester City Council — manchester.gov.uk
• Leeds City Council — leeds.gov.uk
• Glasgow City Council — glasgow.gov.uk
• Cardiff Council — cardiff.gov.uk
• Belfast City Council — belfastcity.gov.uk
• Edinburgh — edinburgh.gov.uk

4. Tier 2 — GOV.UK and DEFRA

For the national framework — what councils must do at minimum, what reforms are coming, and how the system fits together — we use GOV.UK and DEFRA as primary references.

5. Tier 3 — Devolved-Nation Bodies

Waste policy and regulation is devolved across the four UK nations. For non-English content, the relevant devolved body takes the place of DEFRA:

6. Tier 4 — Recycle Now & WRAP

For nationally consistent recyclability and contamination guidance — what does and does not go in dry recycling, how to prepare items, and the messaging councils generally align with — we reference:

• Recycle Now (England-wide consumer guidance) — recyclenow.com
• Recycle for Scotland — recycleforscotland.com
• WRAP (the body behind Recycle Now and many UK recycling-policy initiatives) — wrap.org.uk

National guidance is useful as a cross-check, but the council’s local rules are the binding ones for what your bin will actually accept.

7. Tier 5 — LGA and CIWM

For sector practice, professional standards and policy debate, we reference:

• Local Government Association — local.gov.uk
• Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) — ciwm.co.uk

8. Tier 6 — Reputable UK Press and Academic Research

For background on a particular council or a sector trend, we reference reputable UK press (BBC News, the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph local government coverage) and academic waste-policy research from UK universities. Press and academic sources are never the sole source for a current schedule, fee or procedure. Anything time-sensitive comes from Tier 1 or Tier 2.

9. URL Verification — How We Stop Broken Links

1. Manual click-through. Every external link is clicked by an editor before publication. We confirm the page loads, the destination matches the topic, and the URL is the canonical one.
2. .gov.uk domain check. Council URLs are confirmed against GOV.UK’s Find your local council directory to make sure we’re linking to the official council, not a similarly named third-party.
3. Content match. The destination page must actually be the page we describe. A garden-waste subscription link that lands on a generic “Bins” hub doesn’t pass — we link to the actual subscription page.
4. HTTPS preference. Where the source publishes both, we link to HTTPS.
5. Quarterly re-verification. Every external link on every page is re-checked at least quarterly.
6. Reader-reported breakage. Broken links reported by readers are fixed within seven working days.
7. No Google Search fallbacks. If we can’t verify a council’s specific page, we don’t link to a Google Search results page as a substitute. We mark the section as “URL not yet verified” or omit it.

10. Fact-Checking Workflow

Every council page goes through this workflow before publication:

1. Drafter pulls facts from the council’s own page, GOV.UK and (if relevant) the devolved-nation body. Each fact gets a source note.
2. Editor reads the source pages in full, including any “service alert” or update banners that often hold the most current information.
3. Editor cross-checks national framework against GOV.UK or DEFRA where relevant.
4. URLs are tested live, not assumed.
5. Fees are confirmed against the council’s current fees page — garden-waste subscriptions and bulky-waste in particular get extra attention because they change yearly.
6. Second editor reviews the page end-to-end before it goes live.
7. “Last reviewed” date is set to the publication date.

11. The Two-Source Cross-Reference Rule

Time-sensitive facts — a missed-collection reporting window, a garden-waste subscription fee, a bulky-waste pricing change — must be confirmed by two independent sources before they go on a page. Acceptable combinations include:

• The council’s own page and GOV.UK’s national signpost
• The council’s own page and the devolved-nation body’s published guidance (for non-English councils)
• The council’s bins page and the council’s fees / “pay for it” pages, where they cover the same item

If two sources disagree, we go with the more authoritative one — usually the council itself for council-specific content — and flag the conflict to the editorial team for resolution.

12. Update Cycles — Aligned to the UK Waste Calendar

UK waste collection runs on a predictable annual calendar (financial year fee changes in April, garden waste typically pausing for winter from late autumn, bank-holiday shifts on a known cluster of dates), so our review cycles are aligned to it.

13. Citation Standards

• External links open in a new tab with rel="noopener" for security
• Affiliate links use rel="nofollow noopener sponsored" per CAP Code and ICO/ASA guidance
• Primary citations link directly to the council page, GOV.UK page or DEFRA page in question
• Statutory references use the section format (e.g., section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990) and link to legislation.gov.uk
• Last-reviewed dates appear on every council page so readers can judge freshness

14. What We Don’t Use

• Waste-contractor marketing pages. We don’t cite a contractor’s blog as authority for a council’s procedure. The council’s own page is the authority.
• Anonymous blog posts. Even when factually accurate, anonymous content can’t be verified or held to account.
• Wikipedia as a sole source. Useful for orientation, never as the sole basis for a fact on a council page.
• Generic AI-generated content from other sites. We don’t republish or paraphrase content we can’t trace to a primary source.
• Wayback Machine snapshots in place of current pages. Archived snapshots are useful historical reference but never a substitute for the council’s current page.
• Social media posts from individuals or unofficial accounts, regardless of follower count.
• Out-of-jurisdiction guidance applied across the UK. English Simpler Recycling rules don’t apply automatically in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland; we treat each nation’s framework separately.

15. Reader Contributions and Corrections

Readers are an important part of our verification system. If you spot a discrepancy — a council’s page says one thing and ours says another — please email info@councilbincollection.org with subject line “Correction” and the URL of the page in question. The full corrections workflow is on the Editorial Policy page.

16. Audit Trail and Openness

Where a journalist, researcher or waste-sector professional needs to verify how we sourced a particular page, we make our editorial notes available on request. Email us with the URL of the page and the specific factual claim you want to trace, and we’ll respond within seven working days with the underlying source links and editorial notes. Transparency is a feature, not a cost.