Charging for green waste collection!!!!

[salome2001]

... and they don't even make it into community compost (like South Glos does)

[Paulieb]

Just a thought why don't you remind them they have to pay a tonnage penalty now for landfill and if everyone starts to throw their garden waste in that bin it would certainly increase those charges.

Colin

The thought did cross my mind. There is a big bold reminder on the letter saying you shouldn't put green waste in the landfill bins, but are they really gonna knock on my door to give me my outer cabbage leaves back cos I forgot to put them in my compost bin. (I do put them in the compost!).

It did also occur to me that there is money to be made by collecting everyone green waste processing it and selling on. Obviously need some expensive kit to do that though.

[SarzWix]

Ours do a great job at the moment too. We have 3 wheelies; one for landfill, one for tins and plastics, and one for garden waste. Then we have plastic bags for paper. They all get emptied every 2 weeks on rotation - so 2 things one week, and the other 2 the next. If you properly recycle, it works very well, none of the bins are overflowing when they come round, and we're a family of 5. Other people whinge a bucket-load about 2 weekly collections for land-fill stuff, but I reckon they're just not bothering to separate
Our garden waste bin doesn't have that much in it usually though, so if they did start charging we'd just give the bin up altogether.

[Dibblecat]

Merton council now charges £65 p/a for fortnightly green waste collections. I guess they want to encourage bonfires in an urban area! Amazing the difference in charges and approaches across the country.

[chris]

Ours don't charge, recycling waste is collected every week, in a brown wheelie bin. We also have food waste collection every week (I don't put any out, as anything that isn't eaten can mostly be composted, or somehow gets re-used (other meal, or occasionally the chickens get a treat if it's suitable).

Landfill waste is every other week.

I find weekly recycling waste isn't enough for us, we seem to generate an awful lot of recyclable waste, and often have a backlog of things waiting for the bin to be emptied that can't fit in it.

[stella]

We have to buy special bags on a roll for £10 then they will collect on specified days. I manage to compost it all

[Two_Sheds]

it just means I'll be more encouraged to compost more or use my garden incinerator for bad weeds, etc.

Bad weeds?

We've never had green waste collection and tbh, I wouldn't use it. What's my compost bin for?

(If you give me a list of stuff you currently put in the bin, I'll tell you how I deal with it)

[donnakebab]

As Binley says. Offer it to local allotment. Might be nearer than the tip. It always disappears when it's brought to our site.

Our Council provides green waste wheelie with fortnightly collection from April to December. Grey wheelie form domestic waste collected weekly and a ridiculous assortment of receptacles for recycling collected fortnightly.

My grey wheelie is usually less than half full and that was with a family of 4. One less now so it will be interesting to see what difference that makes.

[Two_Sheds]

I send a note round my neighbours as soon as I hear the first lawnmower of spring:

"swap your full bag of clippings for a new empty bag. Leave on doorstep of No.857"

I had ONE all summer. People would rather put stuff in landfill than give it to someone who wants it.

[Currysniffa]

We have 3 wheelie bins, the black bin is landfill, blue bin is for tins, plastics and it has a inset for cardboard and the green bin for garden waste , collection is fortnightly and green and blue bins go out on the same day.

We are not charged extra yet, but I think its probably the way it will go in the future, I'm happy with how it works at the moment, we've gone from the black bin in being over full and having to jump up and down on it, to it being half full most of the time.

This year I'm put a small dalek compost bin in our small garden, I usually take most of our green waste to the lottie but not the grass and hedge cuttings, I've also bought a wormery for the back yard.

[Currysniffa]

I send a note round my neighbours as soon as I hear the first lawnmower of spring:

"swap your full bag of clippings for a new empty bag. Leave on doorstep of No.857"

I had ONE all summer. People would rather put stuff in landfill than give it to someone who wants it.

Its probably just laziness T_S, its easier to put it in the green bin than to walk round to your house with it.

[bazzaboy]

I have to admit our local council Nottm City have got recycling about right.

But I live in Nottinghamshire and our local council certainly haven't.... As this thread clearly demonstrates the range of practice in this important area is nationally chaotic. In the previous government the Minister charged with sorting it out was a chap called Ed Miliband - don't know what happened to him but he managed nowt as a Minister - and likewise the new Minister who had to resign recently on alleged charges of misdemeanors. It's not a vote catcher so the muddle continues.

In my district we have the fortnightly collection (landfill, recycle) and until last year outlying areas more than 6 miles from a tip had a free six-weekly collection of "large items" (including garden waste) but that has been discontinued under "austerity measures". So you now apply for a licence to take stuff yourself or can have it collected at £5.00 per item (2 dustbin bags counts as 2 items). They then closed the nearest tip (as another austerity measure...) so the round trip to drop off waste is 24 miles; long queues... Literally just down the road, which comes under a different authority (but is still Nottinghamshire), the system is entirely different, even the wheelie bins are a different colour. Go a bit north and you're in South Yorks, different again; go a few miles east and you're in Lincs, different again. As a national system it's a shambles.

To my knowledge at least two local parish councils/groups have considered setting up garden waste recycling systems but are scared of the consequences because they know any system will be abused by flytipping of non-garden waste... It already happens in local fields and lanes... and these are for the most part polite and quite well-heeled villages. Parish councils are at their wits ends not only on solving dog mess on pavements but grass cuttings dumped into hedgerows where they soon block ditches with the result that downpours (climate change?) can result in locally flooded areas.

For myself I've started a mulch thread. In these austerity times I sense the world is struggling to get back to where it was (not least in the macro-sense with Euro-crises and quantatitive easing etc) whereas maybe it really needs to develop new and less profligate systems a fundamental part and parcel of which would be new attitudes to waste....

[julesapple]

It's quite a way to the nearest lotties. Would lotteers want it full of straw or sawdust?

In theory NS council do a good job. We have been issued with a green box for recyclable stuff (we put out four boxes every week as a large family, and sort everything to make it easier for bin men, and you are allowed to recycle as much as you like) a grey wheely for landfill, and a brown food waste box (mine hardly ever goes out) but they are truly awful at collection in the small villages.

Also rules over Christmas such as not taking the landfill bin if the lid won't shut, no extra bags and if you want your Christmas tree collected it must be out on the first collection day after Christmas (28th Dec last year) are a bit daft. Most families with children have shedloads of extra rubbish over Christmas, people still want their trees on 28th (I guess they offered....) and then, on top of that they didn't turn up to collect any rubbish until January 5th even though most people had their refuse out on the designated holiday collection days starting on 28th December.

We're also told that bins must be out by 8.30am on collection days, but they turn up at 7am frequently and we're not actually allowed to put it out the night before (but everyone does unless the weather is bad) My youngest two boys will visit three elderly/infirm neighbours to put their rubbish out first thing in the mornings as they can't be expected to get up, dressed and put bins out by 7am. They get it ready the night before and my guys just go up the driveways and pull it down to the kerb.

The worry I have about charging for tip-trips is fly-tipping - surely it'll become a much worse problem than it already is if they charge for using the tip over the annual allowance? Fly-tipping round here is already rife.

It would be an excellent system here, if they put a tiny bit of thought into it,

Jules

[Paulieb]

Bad weeds?

(If you give me a list of stuff you currently put in the bin, I'll tell you how I deal with it)

Perhaps I phrased it badly, but the main culprit for me would be ivy. I've got tonnes of the stuff and don't want to risk it going in the compost, especially as I'm not convinced my compost gets hot enough. Not really sure what others if any.

I normally also put any diseased plants in the green bin for the council.

If there is a way round this then I'd be interested to hear it, or maybe I should just do a quick search and probably find the answer myself.

[Mikey]

Our council will collect garden waste if its bagged in pre purchased bags, I've never bought them as we are only 2 miles from a recycling centre, and they have a big skip there which take anything I can't use, anything woody.

My father is involved in a good scheme in Mid Wales, there are 12 town councillors, who volunteer their time to maintain and look after a recycling area within in the town. They collect most things, to be fair, and all the proceeds from the sale of the waste is given to support local groups like guides and scouts, and charities. Last year I think they raised about 10K.

I wish there were more schemes like this around the country, where communities took back control of their recycling, and the local community benefited from their efforts.