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New Waste Vehicle Names

Published Monday 15 January, 2024
Last updated on Tuesday 27 February, 2024

‘Wheelie Wonka’ could be taking away your recycling after a public vote saw the name come out on top.

Swale Borough Council has ordered a new fleet of recycling, waste and street cleansing vehicles, ready for a new contract that starts at the end of March.

To help make sure people were aware of the new contract, and to encourage recycling across the borough, the council asked the public to suggest names for the new vehicles.

Hundreds of suggestions were whittled down to a shortlist of 41 names which went to a public vote to name 22 of the 24 recycling and waste lorries and three street sweepers.

Three further suggested names were agreed to be used on vehicles, and these will be revealed in the coming weeks.

There were more than 3,000 votes for the different names, and the top five recycling and waste vehicle suggestions were:

Wheelie Wonka
Bin Diesel
Stinkerbell
Trash Gordon
Binnie the Pooh

The street cleansing vehicles names that received the most votes were:

Sweeping Beauty
Sweep Caroline
Bruce Springclean

The vehicles are currently being built as part of the council’s new waste and street cleansing contract with SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd and will be rolling out across the borough from March.

This brand-new fleet will help the council deliver improved waste collections and street cleansing services across the borough in a more environmentally friendly way.

They will collect food waste every week, in dedicated pods on the side of the vehicles. This will help avoid confusion some people have when they currently see food going into the dedicated compartment in the rear of the vehicles.

Recycling and general waste will continue to be collected on alternate weeks, and two vehicles will be dedicated to the garden waste subscription service.

The contract begins on 24 March 2024 and will make use of the latest technology, such as these new vehicles.

Cllr Rich Lehmann, Chair of the environment committee, said:

“Thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions for lorry names and to all of you that took part in the vote.

“These vehicles, as part of our new waste contract, will help us provide an efficient service that can enable everyone in the borough to dispose of food waste weekly.

“I hope that when people see these names on the vehicles, it will raise a smile and keep recycling in people’s minds.

“It is incredibly important for all of us to recycle correctly, contamination is a huge issue and can cause whole loads of dry recycling to be incinerated instead, undermining the efforts of everyone else.

“Please don’t dispose of food waste, textiles and sanitary products like nappies in your recycling, or anything else that can lead to contamination.

“If you aren’t sure what goes in your bins, you can check on our website by searching ‘what goes in my bin’.”

Waste vehicle name winners (most popular first):