Why should we pay for green waste removal but not for recycle waste or land-fill waste? Councils can make money from selling composted green waste, but there is a shortage of land-fill sites.
We pay about £80/85 a year for our collection. I'm not too bothered about paying. It's worth it to get rid of sticks and other slow compost stuff. With the vicious cuts to council services, they need to get revenue from somewhere.
Dare we mention Directors' salaries and somewhat generous pensions which also have to be paid for?
It surprised me that new build houses have to buy all their bins (£50 each) plus the green bin collection for 11 months of £30 here. Never thought about it before, but just recently seen an article about it.
I have to admit to having conflicting thoughts about home composting now. Went to a (deliberately) provocative talk at HC flower show, where the Chief Scientist at the RHS came out as an anti-home composter. The reason they don’t like green waste going to landfill is that when it decomposes it creates methane (much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2). Mr RHS argued that home composting on a small domestic scale creates just as much methane. Whereas green waste composting on a council size scale is done in controlled (anaerobic) conditions, that stop waste gases being produced. So should we ALL be sending our green waste to council facilities ?
Still have my compost heap, and there’s something about the transport emissions of collecting it all then redistributing it as soil improver ...... but it did get me thinking 🤔
Our 'kerbside' collection is half a mile from the house. We and others in a similar permission are allowed to use black bin bags, as wheelie bins are difficult or impossible to get into cars and they could cause a hazard left at the side of narrow country roads.
I only use the household waste collection, not garden waste or recycling, though I will be paying for all 3. I don't mind, it is the price I must pay to live somewhere as isolated as this!
I compost most things, but bag up things like flag iris and nettle roots, that regrow only too easily, and take them to the local recycling centre where I can dispose of them for no extra cost. I do have bonfires too though, as with a large garden and many trees I get a lot of woody material. Bigger stuff feeds the woodburners in winter.
Recycling is sorted at home and delivered to collection centres at local supermarkets when I go down for the household shop.
I pay £60 a year for my garden bin collected every 2 weeks. I can pack so much into it and My Mum's rubbish goes in there too. Of course I would rather have it for free,who wouldn't! My friend who has a very large garden was taking at least 2/3 trips to the local tip every week by car,now he has 2 wheelie bins that he can pack full and a trip to the tip is now a very rare occasion. My green kitchen waste now goes to my daughter who has her own compost heap.
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
Compost heaps, successful ones, are full of oxygen.
Thats the problem, thats what creates the methane. Council processes compost in the absence of oxygen.
There are lots of things that will continue to happen naturally in the world. But thats not a good excuse for not trying to make improvements where we can 😇
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Still have my compost heap, and there’s something about the transport emissions of collecting it all then redistributing it as soil improver ...... but it did get me thinking 🤔
I can pack so much into it and My Mum's rubbish goes in there too.
Of course I would rather have it for free,who wouldn't!
My friend who has a very large garden was taking at least 2/3 trips to the local tip every week by car,now he has 2 wheelie bins that he can pack full and a trip to the tip is now a very rare occasion.
My green kitchen waste now goes to my daughter who has her own compost heap.
There are lots of things that will continue to happen naturally in the world. But thats not a good excuse for not trying to make improvements where we can 😇