Thousands of "rogue" wheelie bins are being seized from Somerset homes as the council battles to cut waste costs — even while spending up to £700,000 on new containers this year.

Somerset Council says around 3,500 unsanctioned bins will be removed and reused from properties across the county.

Most are 180-litre grey refuse bins that households shouldn't have, but which add to collection costs.

At the same time, the council has set aside nearly £1m in its 2025/26 budget for new waste containers. It expects to spend around £700,000 of that by April 2026 on replacements and extras for new housing developments.

That includes:

• 17,500 grey or black refuse bins
• 7,000 green bins for garden waste
• 11,000 green recycling boxes for glass and cartons
• 12,500 black boxes for paper and card
• 62,000 brown food caddies
• 69,000 of the council's trademark "big blue bags" for plastics and cans

Large numbers of new containers have already been handed out during the roll-out of the Recycle More scheme, which cut general rubbish collections from fortnightly to once every three weeks.

Chris Hall, the council's executive director for community, place and economy, said: "The provision of suitable containers will allow the residents of Somerset to fully engage with our vision of ensuring our household waste is effectively collected, reused, recycled and treated. The method of collection of containers is fixed until at least 2030 and alternatives are not contractually permissible."

He added there would be "strict control over bin distribution to minimise unnecessary purchases" to avoid further costs to taxpayers.

H/T: Daniel Mumby/LDRS