Delay for households on St Mary’s
We regret to have to announce that the new household recycling service which was due to begin on Monday 31 March 2025 will be delayed for all households on St Mary’s. This is because the delivery of the new segregated recycling vehicle has been rescheduled for reasons outside of our control, which has had a knock-on effect on the delivery of the new containers.
Households on St Mary’s will not receive their new containers before Monday 31 March, and will therefore need to use their single-use green and blue sacks for recycling, as usual, until a revised start date for the new service can be confirmed and communicated. Households on St Mary’s will be able to begin using their new containers as soon as they have been delivered. In the meantime, if you live on St Mary’s and require more green or blue recycling sacks, please collect them from the reception points at St Mary’s Library or Carn Gwaval Wellbeing Centre.
We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this delay and thank you for your patience whilst we work to resolve the issue.
Businesses on St Mary’s unaffected by delay
This delay only affects households on St Mary’s and does not apply to businesses on St Mary’s which have signed up to the new Council commercial waste and recycling service – these businesses will receive their new service as previously communicated.
Businesses who haven’t signed up to the Council’s new commercial waste and recycling service (and returned their contract) won’t receive a collection service from the Council from Monday 31 March 2025. Businesses in this position can still sign up to the new service by emailing zerowaste@scilly.gov.uk
Households and businesses on the off-islands unaffected by delay
Households and businesses on St Agnes, Bryher and St Martin’s also remain unaffected by this delay and will begin to receive their new Council services as planned from Monday 31 March 2025.
Waste and recycling services on Tresco are managed by Tresco Estate and remain unaffected.
Changes to recycling days
Please be aware that waste and recycling collection days will still be changing for some St Mary’s households from Monday 31 March, so please double-check your new waste and recycling collection day on the ‘Household waste and recycling’ page of our website.
Bottle banks
The bottle banks will remain in their current locations until the new segregated recycling service has been fully rolled out on St Mary’s.
Getting this message out
Whilst we will do everything we can to make sure all St Mary’s households get this message before Monday, we would appreciate the community’s help in spreading the word to anyone who is unlikely to see the message online. Any St Mary’s household which does not see this message, but continues to present their waste and recycling in the single-use bags until the new containers are delivered, will have those bags collected.
Further information
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Waste and Recycling team at zerowaste@scilly.gov.uk or call 01720 424450.