Charging for green waste collection!!!!

[VirginVegGrower]

Like TS we receive no green waste collection, as we live up a narrow lane. The chemical waste van comes once a week to take our landfill. Any recycling has to be done by us at our next village on recycling unit. It is good there, they have a clothing/shoe bank, etc. I pack up the car boot once a week with mine and my elderly neighbours' too. Our council tax rates are quite high but we don't get charged extra to my knowledge (the rest of the village gets a brown and blue bin service). If they tried to give us a brown bin, I think I'd be very tempted to ram it back. This is why we have three bin compost units up the garden.

I forgot to add that anything too woody, gets thrown back into the wood Any fallen tree branches, get thrown onto the fire. Any wood ash gets thrown around the fruit trees. The cycle of woody life!

[jackie j]

you can, of course, fill your car/trailer and take it to the council recycling site - no charge for that except petrol costs etc.

Unless you live here in Devon where they now charge for some, like rubble, bathroom suites, etc etc.

[VirginVegGrower]

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.

Burn both and use the ash maybe...

[Mikey]

Unless you live here in Devon where they now charge for some, like rubble, bathroom suites, etc etc.

Thats terrible, a sure way to increase fly tipping if you ask me.

[Jax]

we have to buy special bags from the council and they may take it. Works out blinking expensive though. Apparently they are limiting use of the tip now aswell so more flytipping!

[perkin]

I honestly had no idea that some councils charged for collecting recyclable materials. We have a year-round fortnightly collection at no additional charge above the council tax. One week is black bins for landfill (of which we have a small version wheely bin as we're only a two person household) and the next week is green wheely bin for 'green waste' and various plastic boxes for glass, plastics, paper, foil, tins, etc. We've got our waste down to only needing to put the landfill bin out once a month and the green wheely bin is usually used for larger garden prunings, huge woody rootballs and the occasional meat/fish food waste. I use as much shredded junk mail and cardboard waste as I can in the composter and use the local recycling centre for anything wood/metal/electrical.
I feel it is so wrong to be charged for the green collection - not everyone has either the space for a compost bin nor a car to take it to the local recycling places themselves. The councils really shouldn't be penalising people in this way.

[Alison]

We have three bins in Warrington, a black one for residual waste that they will pick up every week but we only bother putting out about once a month and we don't fill in then. Made a real effort to not buy stuff with excessive packaging about 5 years ago and since then our waste has gone down loads. We also have a full sized green bin for garden stuff (although in theory we're not allowed to put any kitchen waste in and quite what the difference is between a cabbage leaf in the kitchen and one in the garden has always confused me). I use it for very woody stuff and nasties like bind weed of which I have loads (I know I can drown but I run out of space for it all ), this gets picked up once a fortnight but not between Dec and March. Finally we have another full sized bin, again picked up once a fortnight which is blue and is for all other recycling that they'll take. Prior to this we had smaller blue ones just for paper and card which was recycled separately and produced a really good product. Now it's all mixed the paper gets full of broken glass and isn't much use in the future which is a shame and as they need to separate it you can't add shredded stuff (I put in on the compost heap instead if the paper isn't glossy). Also the glass doesn't get separated into different colours like when you take it to the supermarkets etc. In short, they haven't really thought it through properly and do what they think will look good but at least they don't charge us extra although for those of you who are charged for a licence, at least you have the choice as to if you want to pay for it as the money has to come from somewhere.

[rana]

I can't see the economic sense for Poole Council to start charging when they will still have to send a truck and a team of guys round to pick up the few green waste bins that stay with the program. I will now be taking any excess garden waste to the dump myself (at considerably less than £31 per year).

[jackie j]

We have two bins, colected alternate weeks, recycle bin takes food waste but I put as much as I can in my compost bin that I take up to the lottie, garden waste, cardboard, I shred as much paper as I can and reuse old newspapers. Anything else that can, go in the paper box ( in a bag if wet ) along with the glass and plastic that is collected on the same day, tins in another bin.
General waste for landfill is put in the other bin. To be honest we recycle as much as we can even if it means taking it to the tip ourselves and did all this before we were given the bins and boxes.

[Two_Sheds]

I'm not trying to be a goody goody teacher's pet, just showing how it can be done differently:

cardboard ...grass and hedge cuttings

All cardboard gets torn up and goes in compost bins.
Hedge cuttings are cut into small pieces, and go in compost bins.
Larger branches get cut into 12" lengths, and get burned on the chiminea, or freecycled for firewood.
Grass clippings: valuable mulch for spuds, onions etc. Excellent compost activator, put on heaps in 1" layers.

straw or sawdust?

can go on compost heaps, mixed with plenty of greens

ivy.

I have a 25ft fence at the lotty, covered with ivy. I keep it trimmed so it's tidy. Trimmings go in the daleks. None have rooted so far.
Roots, when I need to dig them up, get left on a path to dry out, then they go in the daleks too.

anything too woody, gets thrown back into the wood

I had a lot of wood to deal with when I took over the school gardens: a lot of pruning was needed.
It all got sawn into lengths of 12"-30", then was put under the trees as "frog & beetle habitats". Dead wood is superb for insects, which are superb food for all kinds of nice things like birds.

not buy stuff with excessive packaging

That's got to be the way to go. I leave excess packaging at the store - it goes in their big bins on my way out.

bind weed

as you say, can be drowned: you can get a lot of it in a bucket.
I also put it in black sacks, like leafmold.
In summer, it can be dried out on a path until crispy, then added to compost heap.



If we keep increasing our waste, the council tax will keep on going up. (I've yet to be offered a discount for my frugal ways, but I'll keep on doing it).

[Hilary B]

Aren't we lucky, our green-waste collection used to be charged (£26pa, went up to £30pa) but as of later this month it is becoming FREE! We all got an invite to request a green bin (apart from those who have been paying for one anyway) and ours will be delivered during February (so they say).
Black bin (landfill) collected one week, recyclables (black box for paper glass and tins, blue bin for plastic bottles and card, green bin for garden waste) the next.
The only problem is going to be finding a place to leave 2 bins and a box on recycling days!

[Hilary B]

We do need to have garden waste taken away, the garden is tiny, but has LOADS of shrubs. There is no way we can compost all the prunings, and we don't have the option of a real fire indoors (my preferred solution), and bonfires, well we have used an incinerator (not enough space for anything else) but it isn't a workable option.
We do sometimes take a car-load to the recycling depot, but it's not something we will be doing once the alternative is in operation.
I'm hoping to get a lot more clear space by the end of this summer, with all the prunings being removed a bin-full per fortnight, then we will be able to actually grow rather more.
The softer bits go in the compost bin, as do the vegetable trimmings from the kitchen, and things like teabags.

[cptncrackoff]

Our green waste is just about to be contracted out to a private company, they charge £10 PER BAG!!
you buy two, then when theyre full phone them up, they take your two bags, give you two more and rob you of your £20!! no thanks.

[Two_Sheds]

£10 PER BAG!!

I'll do it for a fiver ~ I can use all the compost given to me

[Currysniffa]

All cardboard gets torn up and goes in compost bins.
Hedge cuttings are cut into small pieces, and go in compost bins.
Larger branches get cut into 12" lengths, and get burned on the chiminea, or freecycled for firewood.
Grass clippings: valuable mulch for spuds, onions etc. Excellent compost activator, put on heaps in 1" layers.

Yes your right I'll put my hands up \0/ I could do more and that's why I've brought a dalek for our garden, I've never fancied putting my grass cuttings on the lottie though, my lawns full of dandelions so don't want them on the lottie as well. I cut the grass on both allotment sites and I always put a layer of grass cuttings in my dalek's whilst I'm at it.