Residents are being advised that refuse and recycling sacks will be collected on the Good Friday and Easter Monday bank holidays.

The borough’s new waste contractor is on course to have completed 300,000 refuse and recycling collections in the first week of the new contract, which came into effect on Monday, April 2.

The contract change has led to a number of important improvements in the way the service is run for residents.

Collections are now being made over five days instead of six.

This means that residents in Putney and Roehampton will no longer have their refuse and recycling sacks picked up on Saturday mornings, ensuring people in this part of the borough do not suffer early morning noise disturbance or traffic congestion at the start of the weekend.

The brand new fleet of vehicles have been equipped with two separate compartments so that black binbags and Orange recycling sacks can be collected by a single crew.

As well as a significant financial saving offered by using one vehicle instead of two, this important change means that with fewer refuse trucks on the borough’s roads, motorists will suffer less from traffic hold-ups while everyone will benefit from less pollution and better air quality.

The new contract also guarantees weekly bin collections and means that residents do not need to keep separate food slop containers, as is the case in many other boroughs up and down the country.

The change in contract has also enabled the council to negotiate a better financial deal for local taxpayers compared to the previous arrangements.

The improved efficiencies delivered by the new contract will deliver a saving to local taxpayers of just under £1m each and every year for the next eight years.

The move from a six day a week operation to five means that most residents have this week seen their collection days changing.

Pick-ups in Putney and Roehampton have switched from Saturdays to Tuesdays, while households in north Battersea are moving to Wednesdays. This affects people living to the east of Trinity Road and the north of Battersea Rise.

People living to the south of Battersea Rise and the east of Wandsworth Common as far south as Balham High Road have a new collection day of Friday.

Homes in Southfields to the east of Wimbledon Park Road have seen their collection days change from Fridays to Tuesdays, while those in other parts of Southfields, plus in Earlsfield and Wandsworth Common will have pick ups on Thursdays. This includes those who live in the Southfields "Grid" plus those who live in the "Toastrack" by Wandsworth Common.

Collections for households in most parts of Tooting are unchanged on Mondays.

People can check their new collection days by visiting www.wandsworth.gov.uk/refusecollection and keying in the name of their street.

Details of the new schedules were widely publicised by the town hall ahead of last Monday’s switchover date.

Residents received written notification of the changes when they were sent their council tax bills last month.

The information was also published in the last two editions of the council's magazine BrightSide, which is delivered free of charge to all 125,000 homes in the borough. One was a double page spread while the other was a full page advert.

Leaflets were placed in the borough’s libraries and council reception points, while numerous press releases were published on the council’s website and also on a number of other local community websites. The new arrangements were also outlined in the pages of the local paper.

Details were published on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, while large banners were attached to refuse trucks announcing the changes. Details were also emailed to all the borough's neighbourhood watch co-ordinators so that they could pass the information on via their local networks.

For more information about Wandsworth’s waste and recycling services call (020) 8871 8558 or email wasteservices@wandsworth.gov.uk.