The city has selected additional streets for nighttime collection, particularly those with significant daytime traffic. This includes streets with heavy tram and bus traffic, cycling streets, school zones, industrial areas, and streets with time windows for deliveries. By collecting waste at night, the city intends to minimize conflicts between garbage trucks and other road users, especially cyclists and pedestrians, and avoid the busy morning rush hour.
Many of the selected nighttime streets connect to existing nighttime routes, which can streamline collections and improve the organization of collection routes. Alderman for urban cleaning and waste Ken Casier highlighted the need for smart choices: "A large city requires smart choices: when the resident of Antwerp sleeps, we collect the waste. From January, we are therefore expanding nighttime collection with about 130 streets. This way, we limit daytime traffic disruption and prioritize safety and livability."
For residents in the selected streets, only the collection time will change; collection will now occur at night instead of during the day. Residents can place their waste outside between 6:00 PM and 9:30 PM. The expansion does not affect the frequency of waste collection for any type of waste. For example, those who currently put out PMD and paper and cardboard weekly will continue to do so, as will residents who alternate between PMD and paper and cardboard. Residents of streets with a changed collection time will be informed in a timely manner. Through the online map, residents can already check if their collection day will change.
With this further expansion of nighttime waste collection, the city of Antwerp is investing in smoother mobility, a safer traffic environment, and more efficient waste collection for all its residents.
