I think our charge was between £50 and £60 last year and we have two bins. I'm waiting to see how much the charge will be come April. I agree with Butterfly66, I'm happy to pay as it's a convenience for us.
We have two bins, emptied fortnightly with a five week break over Christmas. We pay £50 a week for each one. Well worth it to us, with over an acre to look after, there is never a problem filling it. We do have two shredders, to make the most of the space in the bins! There is a council tip within a few miles, rebuilt a few years ago, and well designed with the skips below the level of the car parking, so very easy to empty bags of greenery. However it’s a relief not to have to load up the car with the risk of introducing spiders and insects, and in one case, a mouse! Before our old car died, it was treated as the ‘tip wagon’, and did all the dirty or risky jobs, like the park and ride, or station car parks. East Devon is apparently 6th best in the country for recycling household waste. All seems very easy to us, we’ve been doing it for years and it’s second nature, but Exeter has been making a fuss about changing over to a similar system.
I don't have an issue with paying for the service. It used to break for 4 weeks between mid December and mid January, but now the break is longer and the price keeps going up. If they said they were reducing the service to keep the price down it would be more acceptable.
We have two bins, emptied fortnightly with a five week break over Christmas. We pay £50 a week for each one. ...
That seems rather a lot! I guess you mean £50 a year?
I wouldn't mind paying in principle, but the reality is I don't fill it often enough to be worth paying extra. Lots of people round here struggle pay for essentials like food and heating, so I guess our council has been taking that into account. We'll see whether it continues to be included in the council tax when the new bill comes. They could, I suppose, separate it from the council tax so that those who are struggling and don't garden could get their council tax reduced by a bit, but I think that's very unlikely.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I wish we had green waste collections here in Ireland - but it only happens in towns like Limerick (where gardens are smaller, of course, so produce less waste...). I'd gladly pay to have stuff removed which we can't compost. They won't even accept it for recycling at the "waste transfer station" near here. (And if they did, we'd have to pay a lot - they charge €7 per swing bin liner sized rubbish bag.) I'm making a "dead hedge" for the woody stuff which is unsuitable for shredding, but the perennial weed roots have to go into landfill.
Be thankful for small mercies...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Our Garden Waste is completely separate from the Council Tax. At least that way, no one has to pay if they don't require that particular service. Looking at the huge amount of general waste some households produce, perhaps it won't be long before councils - especially those on the verge of bankruptcy - begin to make a separate charge for that service too ?
Looking at the huge amount of general waste some households produce, perhaps it won't be long before councils - especially those on the verge of bankruptcy - begin to make a separate charge for that service too ?
What a disaster that would be. London would collapse in a week if they ever tried it here.
Yes, @KT53 , fly tipping is indeed a big problem here. Rubbish collection isn't included in the local property tax (council tax equivalent), so everybody has to have a contract with a rubbish collecting firm, with a monthly charge. This entitles us to fortnightly collections of food waste, recycling and landfill waste. We pay for each bin which is emptied, however, with extra charges for over-weight bins. So naturally, many people don't want to pay, particularly as this paid-for service used to be provided by the government and included in the LPT - and so verges are littered with empty bottles etc. And there are lots of competing rubbish firms, so several different lorries may visit the same street.
The only improvement is that, from this month, a recycling scheme is being introduced for plastic drinks bottles, which gives you a small deposit back if you return the empty bottle to a participating store.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
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There is a council tip within a few miles, rebuilt a few years ago, and well designed with the skips below the level of the car parking, so very easy to empty bags of greenery. However it’s a relief not to have to load up the car with the risk of introducing spiders and insects, and in one case, a mouse! Before our old car died, it was treated as the ‘tip wagon’, and did all the dirty or risky jobs, like the park and ride, or station car parks.
East Devon is apparently 6th best in the country for recycling household waste. All seems very easy to us, we’ve been doing it for years and it’s second nature, but Exeter has been making a fuss about changing over to a similar system.
Be thankful for small mercies...
Looking at the huge amount of general waste some households produce, perhaps it won't be long before councils - especially those on the verge of bankruptcy - begin to make a separate charge for that service too ?
What a disaster that would be. London would collapse in a week if they ever tried it here.
The only improvement is that, from this month, a recycling scheme is being introduced for plastic drinks bottles, which gives you a small deposit back if you return the empty bottle to a participating store.