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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to dump my garden waste?

54 replies

thejollygreengiant · 28/07/2008 08:57

I was getting rid of some garden waste the other day and my neighbour accused me of flytipping. I don't think that I was. What do you think?

The small garden waste is easy - I either compost it or stick it in the Council's green wheelie bin - but the very large, woody prunings are the problem. There is a piece of woodland across the road from us that is overgrown and unkempt. The 'hedges' are about 40 feet high! No one owns it AFAIK, even the neighbour admits that in 30 years he has never seen any signs of ownership. It is only a small piece of land, about 20 feet by 50 feet, but it is so overgrown and spooky that my DC would never play in there despite me trying to encourage them to make dens etc.

Is it reasonable to put the woody stuff (biodegradable, obv) in there, like so many other people in the road do? Or is my neighbour right and it is flytipping and immoral?

OP posts:
Original poster
thejollygreengiant · 28/07/2008 09:49

It's not a woodland, as such. It's a very small piece of land that has been so neglected and overgrown that it is almost like a wood.

OP posts:
Bumdiddley · 28/07/2008 09:54

So what,jgg? It's still fly tipping!

fishie · 28/07/2008 09:57

our council will collect stuff for free.

i live opposite a common and people are always dumping their garden waste there, is awful.

Ripeberry · 28/07/2008 10:01

Tell your nosey neighbour that you are teaching your children about making "habitat piles".
We used to do this when i did conservation work in my youth.
We spent most of our time cutting down overgrown vegetation to let wild flowers grow and would use all the large wood to make piles and we would try and weave it together to make a lovely habitat for insects and sometimes hedgehogs.
I still do this in my own garden, the far end of the garden is just one enourmous habitat pile.

Original poster
thejollygreengiant · 28/07/2008 10:04

If I thought that anybody loved this piece of land then of course I wouldn't tip on it. But no-one has done anything with it for over 30 years. The situation is that

  1. the owner (if such a person exists) doesn't care
  2. the rest of the world can't see

.
.

Oh bum. I'm talking myself out of it now - morals is what you do when no-one is looking.

OP posts:
Original poster
thejollygreengiant · 28/07/2008 10:06

ooh habitat piles, that sounds good!
There is very little vegeatation or undergrowth or flowers - there is too much leaf canopy.

OP posts:
Hecate · 28/07/2008 10:07

bonfire?

AbbeyA · 28/07/2008 10:19

I would call it fly tipping. What would happen if everyone in the neighbourhood did the same?!

Oblomov · 28/07/2008 10:36

Its called tipping.
You find a way of disposing of it, or you pay someone to do it for you.
Simple as that.

milknosugar · 28/07/2008 10:39

if its decent sized branches advertise it on freecycle for people with real fires or want a bonfire or want to makes dens with their kids. i bet some one will take it. your neighbour is right, it is tipping

mustsleep · 28/07/2008 10:44

we put the hedge in the green bin before and they refuse to empty it!! they say no garden waste at all

the council will only do up to 5 collections a year

why can;t we have the purple bins are they that they have in some areas espcially for garden waste?

BuwchBywiog · 28/07/2008 10:46

I can see why you did it even though it is fly tipping, would probably if honest have been tempted myself. Can see your neighbours point too though ... I guess if everyone did it it would be total chaos. Some people make such an effort to dispose of things in the correct, enviromentally friendly way and when you see one of yours neighbours just dumping it can see how it would annoy them!

I thought most councils offered a free service to dispose of a certain amount of bulky waste ... be it old beds or huge amounts of garden waste.

PrimulaVeris · 28/07/2008 10:52

Still fly tipping. What if everyone did that? It's still going to be there for many years before rotting down even if it is 'natural'.

Council should have a collect service for bulky waste or could advise.

thelittlestbadger · 28/07/2008 11:11

Check whether your Council offers a free service for removal of large bits of waste or freecycle/ have a bonfire etc. It is flytipping and if it is starting to irritate your neighbour it may end up reported to the Council who can give you a large fine.

kiskidee · 28/07/2008 11:22

I don't think you ought to be tipping this garden waste there either.

Lets say that everyone in the neighbourhood made the same decision as you for whatever reason.

I have noted that you don't drive but what if they deem themselves too old or suffering physically (like myself at the mo) or can't be arsed. If they all decided to tip their waste on the same patch of wasteland, what would that wasteland look like?

Agree, cut it up smaller or get another bin and put it in there.

hearnoevil · 28/07/2008 11:23

"should the rest of us hire a skip everytime we have to cut the hedge?"

nah of course not.i mean the idea of going out of your way to get rid of your own rubbish is ridiculous. just dump it on someone elses land.

and you wonder why this plot of land looks so over grown and unkept when your whole road is dumping their garden waste on it?

itati · 28/07/2008 11:23

YABU

Chop it up and put it in the garden waste bin or take it to the tip.

mustsleep · 28/07/2008 11:27

hearnoevil it costs £90 to hire a mini skip our hedge is huge it needs trimming constantly

we have gone out of our way to get rid of our rubbish but cannot afford that amount of money every two months was all i was saying

littlelapin · 28/07/2008 11:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mustsleep · 28/07/2008 11:30

would love a garden waste bin!!! our council do not provide them and do not do come around to collect garden waste

we have been burning ours recently but then is that worse than just letting it rot down?

rebelmum1 · 28/07/2008 11:43

We chop ours up and use it for kindlin, or just burn it, why can't you burn it?

Must leep why don't you just start a compost heap?

mustsleep · 28/07/2008 12:16

how do you start a compost heap? do you need anyting special or just make a pile and leave it

can;t it get really hot?

morningpaper · 28/07/2008 12:22

I have huge garden and I don't fly-tip any of it - we used to have waste ground behind us and SOME NEIGHBOURS would dump their garden rubbish but after a few years it was a bloody mess.

I have THREE of the council bins and fill them up - but usually with stuff I can't compost such as bindweed, pereenial weeds and annoying bush things - I get the children to jump on them to crush stuff down.

With big LOGS, I have a small wood pile behind the shed. I chop off side branches with a saw so that it is neat. It is good for wildlife.

For smaller sticks (but too large to manage), I keep it in a pile and in the autumn have a bonfire.

For big hedge trimming sessions I use a garden shredder, although I do this very rarely.

For general garden waste and all non-cooked kitchen waste I have two large compost bins which make fabby compost.

I've been able to manage it all like this for a few years without having to take anything to the dump.

littlelapin · 28/07/2008 12:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rebelmum1 · 28/07/2008 13:22

Oh god it's really very easy, you just need to make a little area, sort of boxed in here I've just used bricks.