A RESIDENT said he is being left to take his own piling up rubbish to the tip after so many missed collections - following news from the council that an 'unprecedented and unsustainable' national shortage of HGV drivers has led to some Dorset bins not being emptied.

Dorset Council has apologised for the disruption to customers and reminded people that extra recycling will always be collected if it is separated properly and placed in a suitable container.

Wayne Tuck, aged 57, of Bere Regis, said his waste is consistently being missed on collection days and claims he is now having to bag it up himself and take it to the tip in Wareham to be put in a landfill.

He said: "It's been going on for quite a long time. They often miss bins.

"They have now informed us they want to collect it in two weeks' time. That would leave us with a month's worth of recycling that I would have to somehow store which causes its own problems. We can't have rats around this place.

"It is my whole lane which is affected by this - it is ridiculous."

The council recently said that people living in the Dorset Council area may have noticed that bins are not being emptied as often as they usually are, despite HGV drivers in the county often working overtime and at weekends as they battle to counteract the national shortage of drivers caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Garden waste collections are temporarily being suspended or delayed so that crews can be redeployed to support rubbish, food and recycling collections. Litter bins are also being emptied less frequently in some areas of the county, and new bin deliveries are being delayed.

However, Mr Tuck said that he feels the council are using the shortage of staff as an excuse and has felt that bin collections on his lane have always been a problem which often seems to get particularly worse following bank holidays.

He said that he didn't feel like he could store the large amount of recycling his family household would create. He said he is tempted to 'black bag it' and have it picked up with the rest of his non-recycled rubbish as that is currently being prioritised to be picked up.

Mike Moon, head of waste operations at Dorset Council, said: “While we are experiencing disruption to our waste services due to the national driver shortage, we are prioritising certain kinds of collections over others. Where we simply do not currently have enough employees to go back and empty bins that were missed, we’re making sure rubbish and food waste collections take precedence over others such as recycling and garden waste. We are also keeping a close eye on which collections have been missed so we can avoid too many people having successive missed collections of any kind.

"We will always accept extra recycling provided if it is separated properly and placed in a suitable container that can be lifted by one person (no bags). Alternatively, if someone is unable to store their waste safely, it can always be taken to a household recycling centre and dropped off free of charge.

"We apologise for the disruption some people may have experienced with their bin collections and thank everyone for their patience and understanding at this challenging time.”