Green Waste Collection

Had a poster through door today from Swindon Council pleading poverty as they have to save 15 million £.

They are proposing to start in Feb 2014 fortnightly collection of Orange bins. That will be one for tins/bottles and one for paper/cardboard, at moment they are weekly. No problem with that although our paper /cardboard box is always full after one week so will require another box put out. What I can see happening is there will be too many boxes to pick up (80,000 homes) and will get left.

The garden waste is the prickly one. For 2014/15 they want to charge £35 a year for garden wheelie bin collection, no doubt go up the following year. In addition to that they will charge a one off £35 for the wheelie bin. That means a payment of £70 for 1st year and £35 thereafter, providing charge does not go up.

This works out at 67p a week for 52 weeks (on the £35).Not too bad you may say but during the winter months the bin would hardly be used at all. I think we generate about 1 garden sack a month in winter.

I have asked if any proposals for discounts/help for pensioners but they are awaiting feedback on that one. There are people like my neighbour who is over 70, does not have a car or computer but in summer may put 0-1 green sacks out a fortnight, how will she cope.

Their answer was to share with someone else, cannot see that working.

I will wait for final decision before committing and to be sure would be better to be able to put all garden rubbish directly into bin rather than green sacks. At the moment I am leaning towards taking a trip down the waste depot say once a month in height of summer. When we pulled up all the dead annuals we had 12 sacks so would need 2 trips.
We try to recycle as much as we can but with limited space.

Is there anybody out there in other parts of the country using the wheelie bin collection scheme and paying for it and does it seem to be working??

 

I compost all my green waste, plus all that I can get from neighbours, saving them 'brown bin' charges, and I can't get enough of the stuff, only needing to know whether grass cuttings have come from lawns treated with 'weed and feed' so that can be stacked separately.

 

I think that will change when people start to dump it around the corner and the council have to go out and clean up the mess may cost more

 

I find it a bit strange the Swindon will charge for picking up garden waste for if folk don't use the separate collection and just feed garden waste into their unsorted non-recycle waste it will end up as land fill and the council has to pay a tax on land fill waste.

 

Our council in Mid Suffolk has always charged for garden waste collection ( brown bin ) since they introduced wheelie bins, £40 a year for a fortnightly collection.
We have only given the bin up this year as we moved to a smaller property.

 

We get free collections but what puzzles most around here is that the collections cease soon, the next one will be the last until March. A lot of people round here are frustrated by this as the very time when they're clearing their gardens of leaves, pruning etc there's no where to put it

I'm not so bothered as I compost most of ours

 

I may be the same council, or an adjacent one, but its the same here.

Dunno if it is because the charge came in from Day One, but I would say 90% of our village have [rent-charged] brown bins out on Bins Day.

Personally I find it staggering as they all have reasonable sized gardens, and most have nice plants, so I would expect them to want to make their own compost.

The local Recycle/Dump will take plant material for free, so you don't have to pay for a green bin - but you would have to take it to the Dump.

 

We have a fortnightly collection,1st week household waste green bin,2nd week Blue bin for paper ,plastic's etc,also brown bin for garden waste,(all mine goes down to my allotment for compost)at know extra cost,all you have to do is buy your brown bin,also you can by plastic bags which they collect on the brown bin day , this service stops for 3 months (Dec to March)

 

I've payed £30 plus for the last few years for a garden waste bin, collected every 2 weeks except over Christmas.
Never liked the sacks anyway as they always got torn, but now you have to hire a bin anyway.

I only use it for woody or diseased stuff.

 

We must be really fortunate. Three bins and fortnightly collections - green waste: recyclables (paper, card, tins & plastics): general waste for landfill. The council supplied a compost bin (dalek) free of charge though we had to buy our second one. When the council changed from weekly to fortnightly collection of recyclables we were offered a bigger bin FOC and hung onto our old smaller one and now use it to store glass that we take to a local recycle point every couple of months.
It's really good to see the quantity of what we once sent to landfill is now being recycled.

 

Over here in Stockport, we have free green wheelie bins for garden and food waste, that is collected once a week.

We can have as many recycling bins as we want only one they charge extra for is the black one non recycling and all they charge is £30 for the bin.

its then taken to a recycling plant and turned in to compost, then re bagged and sold back to the general public at £3.00 a bag for 25kg or 4 for £9.95.

Haven't used any yet, will try some in the spring

 

We have one wheelie bin provided free for all household waste, this is collected once a fortnight and taken to the islands incinerator. Any further bins have to be paid for. Any recycling has to be done by the householder, so I compost what I can and glass and newspapers etc. are taken to a local communal bin area for recycling. Garden waste that can't be composted has to be taken to the tip/amenity site. Everything at the amenity site is available to the public to take/recycle. You'd be surprised to see some of the things that people cram into the backs of their vehicles!

Below a link giving a brief outline of the incinerator:

http://www.sita.co.uk/services-and-...omers/public-private-partnerships/isle-of-man

 

I have a blue (recycling) bin. Fortnightly collection.
I have a black (landfill) bin. Fortnightly collection.
I have a grey "food waste" bin. Weekly collection.

There exists a "green bin" for garden waste. However, when I moved here, we didn't have one (?). Enquiries made = buy one for £40. Mr "M": Why when you gave them freely?
Them: "Because it's a replacement!"
Mr "M": "How can it be called a 'replacement' when I haven't even had ONE?"
Them: "Because it is!"


"Green" matter is composted (Yay me! Free compost!!!)