Charging for green waste collection!!!!

[rustylady]

I can't understand anyone using the green bins for garden waste, most of mine goes on my compost heap.

[Florence Fennel]

Mine too RL and I leave a bucket near the fence so the next door neighbour puts hers in too.

[Jeanied]

Our council gave us each three green waste bags made like the huge white bags that sand or gravel are delivered in, but on a smaller scale. These are collected free on a fortnightly basis most of the year. They are all taken up to a site in the area, and turned into compost / soil conditioner using a fast composting process. This is bagged up and then sold on to the public.

[SarzWix]

Looks like the new poster is piggybacking this thread for a bit of advertising (signature links...) so they will now be doing an involuntary vanishing act...

[Pa Snips]

We have three full-size wheelie bins, a grey one for general waste, a green one for paper & card and a blue one for bottles & cans. We do not have any council-provided means of disposing of garden waste, however, our street is the only one on this housing estate that doesn't. When asked if we could have a brown 'garden waste' bin they said "No, your street doesn't have them." Well duh!!! I wouldn't be asking if we already had one...idiots!

We are supposed to be getting a garden waste bin later this year but I had a chat with my neighbour's fella, whom lives on the street parallel to ours, and he said it might be a pointless 23ltr thing. He 'phoned the council and told them they had made a mistake with his because it's very small and he has two lawns and a privet hedge, while the houses opposite his flat had received full-size wheelie bins despite all having paved yards front and rear. They said "No, houses have big bins and flats have little ones".

Anyway, there is no additional charge around this area for them, because refuse collection is one of the things that is paid for by your council tax.

[Hilary B]

Our garden-waste bin gets the woody stuff, the rest goes on our own compost heap. Since our garden has about 3 times the shrubs that would fit comfortably in the space (legacy of a previous owner) it's handy to be able to get rid of the big prunings...

[eirish]

West Lothian doesn't charge for garden waste collection (although it's only collected every 4 weeks), and what's more, I just found out that the bin collection calendar includes a voucher for 3 free bags of council compost! Now to actually get hold of one...

At the moment I'm generating WAY more than the bin will handle, what with digging out the eternal ground elder and various other nasty weed rhizomes, but once that's sorted I'm going to try to start using the dalek. I've only one, though, so I'm not sure how well it will work.

[veggiechicken]

Thought you might be interested BBC News - Green waste: More councils charge for collections

[Andromeda]

Thought you might be interested BBC News - Green waste: More councils charge for collections

From VC's link

Ms Blizzard added if people lived in homes without gardens they were subsidising the cost of green waste collections for those with gardens.

"If you have a big garden and you decide to grow a lot of fruit and vegetables which produces a lot of green waste it's your responsibility," she said.

She must be really, really out of touch if she doesn't realise that most GYOers will be after as much compost as they can make!

I have a trailer that goes on the back of my 4x4 with a box of strong bin bags attached to it, almost everyone on the road where I live knows that I'll take any green waste. There's no way I can compost all of it myself, but other plot holders are more than happy to take the excess (the plot holder who has several horses operates on the same principle with the rotted manure).

[alldigging]

If it encourages people to concrete over lawns it will add to rain water problems!

[dogsbody]

Complain, complain, complain...... and remind every council involved - the fine per ton of landfill will be larger than the uncollected collection fees. Worked here (so far!).

[WendyC]

Horsham District Council have announced they are going to charge for green waste next year, which so far is free. The annual charge is going to be £29 for the fortnightly collection. The local paper said that's 55p a week - but they don't collect weekly?? My dilemma is that I use it occasionally, probably less than 10 times a year, as I compost as much as I can. I wonder if the system will be able to cope if I ask for occasional collections. Fortunately the tip is not far away so I'll take it there. As we've all got bins I'm wondering how the bin men (and one lady) will know who's signed up and who hasn't as we've all got bins. Are the council going to come round and collect the redundant ones? I'd be interested to hear what happened in other areas where charging was introduced.

[Two_Sheds]

The annual charge is going to be £29

Let us save you £29.

Tell us what you intend putting in there, and let's see if we can come up with alternatives for you (I look after 5 gardens, and never use a Green Waste collection).

[WendyC]

Only very large prunings when all my compost bins are full. Honeysuckle is tricky to compost or shred which is something I put in from time to time. It's not really about the money (although I'm not keen to pay) but the fact I suspect it will be all or nothing, with no flexibility for occasional use.

[veggiechicken]

You could do what we do here - although we don't pay anyway! We borrow our neighbours' bins if we have a lot to get rid of, and they have nothing. Today, for example I've filled 2 bins with brambles (I don't compost these are they're so painful when they dry out). I could have borrowed my neighbour's bin if I'd had more.
So if you don't put much out, can you binshare with a neighbour?