Fortnightly waste collections are on the cards in Hounslow, getwestlondon has learned, as the council looks to cut costs and boost recycling rates.
Council leaders are also considering bringing refuse collection back in house once the contract with SITA expires in November next year, it is understood, following a number of complaints about the current service.
The proposals were discussed at a private meeting between councillors, council officers and representatives from local residents' groups held last month.
They are due to go before cabinet members at a meeting in September, and Hounslow Council has declined to comment at this stage.
It is understood the public would be consulted before any decision is made about adopting fortnightly waste collections and other proposed changes.
getwestlondon also understands, from speaking to residents' groups represented at last month's meeting, that the council is considering introducing a £45 annual charge for garden waste collections and having 'commingled' recycling collections, meaning plastics, cardboard and other recyclables would be collected from a single box.
Should fortnightly general waste collections be adopted, it is believed collections of other items, like recycling and food waste, would remain weekly.
Last year, the coalition government issued guidance to councils in which it supported the retention of weekly bin collections.
'Haphazard'
Eric Pickles, then local government secretary, said at the time: "This government is standing up for hard-working people and getting rid of barmy bin policies which made families' lives hell."
The council recently announced it was rolling out wheelie bins to another 35,000 households across the borough in a bid to increase recycling and make kerbside collections more efficient.
But critics of the wheelie bins, who are particularly vocal in Chiswick, say they are a waste of money, make streets look untidy and have not increased recycling.
A number of residents' groups getwestlondon spoke to said they were concerned about the way wheelie bins had been implemented, with some being issued to houses with no front gardens in which to store them.
They also said the council needed to do more to educate people about how to recycle and the importance of doing so, rather than simply issuing them with wheelie bins and hoping that would do the trick.
Some were concerned that introducing additional wheelie bins in future for recycling and garden waste could make streets and front gardens particularly cluttered.
Residents' groups told getwestlondon there had been a number of missed collections in recent months, with one group describing the service as "haphazard".
Hounslow Council is trying to save £60m by 2019 due to cuts in the central government funding it receives.
It must also boost its recycling rate from 35% at present to 50% by 2020, yet the proportion of household waste being recycled in the borough has actually fallen during the past year.
Local authorities are fined, under what has become known as a 'landfill tax', if too much waste is sent to be buried rather than recycled.
SITA said it was not appropriate to comment before the council had publicly announced its proposals for any changes to waste collections.
