to not pay £50 a year for green waste recycling and just put it in landfill instead?

[amidaiwish]

We've had a green waste bin (for grass cuttings, garden waste etc.) for a couple of years and the renewal bill has just come through. It's £50 a year for the collection.

Surely the council would prefer us to use green waste rather than put it in with our normal rubbish? Why do we have to pay for this collection?

there must be another side to this but i'm struggling to see it! so, aibu?

But having a large garden is pretty explicitly linked to income - much more so than using the roads/police etc.

I think people should have to pay per kilo of waste - it's the only way to get people to seriously cut down on the amount they produce. But this would have to go hand-in-hand with better recycling services and enforceable standards on manufacturers and shops.

I imagine the reason RuT have separated out the garden waste cost is because so many people complain about council tax levels, and they're trying to keep the basic cost as low as possible.

I stand by my post

Our garden is tiny but we seemingly are throwing out whole trees the entire time!

If people paid per kilo of waste that would discriminate against people in flats etc who can't compost....

And the people with really big gardens would end up paying the least as they could do all the composting/recycling and afford to buy chippers etc. Which really wouldn't be fair...

Some people have private security/live in those horrible gated cimmunities - should they be allowed to have something knocked off their police bill?

I hope no politicians are reading I am a bit worried about my parks idea getting out there - I bet many many people (especially those with big gardens ) would happily stop paying that part of their tax...

Sorry BigBella - I'd disagree. Most garden waste is easily composted at home. Surely most garden waste comes from weeds, grass cutting and small prunings - surely people don't generally have large trees pruned that often? The main problem is not too much woody waste, but too much grass cuttings - compost should be 2/3 'brown' waste such as prunings, and 1/3 'green' waste. Composting is very easy - it's not rocket science - and the compost bins the council are promoting make it even easier.

But I do agree with you as a general rule that we need to move away from thinking about taxes as money paid in in order to get something back. However, unless we're prepared to live with 50% (or more) taxes for all, there will always be an element of deciding which services should be covered.

BigBellas - very good points.

Frankly, I think we are going to see more and more councils trying to impose tailored or semi-tailored charges for things like refuse / recycling collection because central Govt funding will be cut in response the recession.

In response to imposing waste colletion charges charges more and more people will just dump rubbish by the roadside, burn or bury it in their garden or use public waste bins. I live down a quiet country lane and it is already happening with people driving down at night and dumping stuff.

Some things are just a public good and need to be charged for by a general levy.

We pay nearly £50 a year for garden waste collection. A bit much, but at least I don't have to transport grass cuttings down to the tip.

Composting is all very well, but it has turned out that the increase in home composting has also led to an increase in rats round here. And the council charges £50 for coming out to investigate rats, let alone dealing with them!

Our council tax bill was only raised by 1% this year, but the council is clawing in money by increasing the cost of green sacks, burials, hire of sports pitches and use of leisure facilities etc etc, so if you don't garden, don't die and are unsporty, you're all right!

Policywonk - you seem rather 'huggy' with councils. They have responsibilities, some of which they perform well, some they don't, and there IS a lot of inefficiency that costs us council tax payers dearly. My particular bugbear is the amount of our council tax that is going on council pensions. Apparently this burden is going to cause our bills to rocket in the future.

Agree with EvenBetaDad re charging for waste collection.

In Italy they started weighing bins. So people put stuff in their neighbours' bins. Then people were provided with locks. So now the country roads are full of rubbish sacks - people just take a few carrier bags with them when they go out and sling it out of the car.

We must just have a lot of fast growing tree/bush type things then bram! TBH if we had a log burning thingy we'd be laughing but I think they're illegal round here...

The idea of people paying for what they use is a tremendously bad one in my book. We live as a community and if a significant proportion of the community needs a certain service it should be provided.

A lot of facilities aren't used by many people - but they are things that vastly improve the quality of life for others - thinking libraries etc. The whole pay for what you use is a slippery slope IMO and not one we want to go down if we wish to live in community. Any other option splinters the community.

Agree with abetadad re. flytipping, a very practical reason not to do it.

Our neighbours already put their rubbish in our bin. Our green bin

Up here in the North West, we have a fortnightly collection of green waste, cost of which is included in our Council Tax.

I have a compsting bin, which is green and sits behind a bush in the garden, and you would not know ot was there, unless you looked very hard! i get compost out of it twice a year, and that is great.

Our local council also sell bags of compost several times a year, for a really cheap price, if you take your own bags it is even cheaper.

Our Council are not getting everything right with recycling, but are making in-roads into it. Our local tip has a sign saying that 41% of the previous months waste was recycled, I think they are aiming for 60% next.

I am educating my children about recycling and they tell DH off when he puts paper in the general rubbish bin!!

As a well-known supermarket says, 'Every little helps'

my garden is small
semi-detached house with small lawn and flower beds
very few trees
green waste bin is say 1/3 full every couple of weeks when grass is cut in summer

so what are the other houses doing without a green bin? putting it in a black bin liner and into landfill that's what. That is my alternative and what we used to do by the way. I don't have space for a compost bin. I'm not driving to the tip (a one hour at least round trip) on a regular basis to drop off grass cuttings.

And that's the crux of the problem amidaiwish. If people see they are having to pay extra they often take the easy, cheap and non environmental option...

Bella!

I'm all for the system of taxes covering community facilities, but the thing with green waste is that IIRC it never was allowed in normal bins (certainly I remember my parents taking it to the tip in the 1980s) so when the councils started collecting it was as an extra service. The trouble with that, is it leads to unlimited taxation. Councils could presumably start collecting bulky waste items from DIY projects, or trees you'd had felled, or builder's rubbish, but would it then be reasonable to expect the cost of that to be spread across all council tax payers?

They do provide skips regularly in our borough for bulkier waste.

I do take your point though. But i think the key is "do a majority or significant minority of people want/use the service" and the answer for green waste in most areas would be yes.

If you told people that they could either pay £50 a year or hand in their library cards, I think you would see all the libraries close.

We pay our council tax to provide services, and waste collection is one of them. Before we had wheely bins, I have memories of people putting grass cuttings in those old metal ones all the time.

If the councils then made a rule that green waste wasn't allowed in, then said OK we will get it but we will charge, then that's offering a worse service than they did in the first place.

And a lot of people will stick it in black bags and put it in the normal bin which is the worst outcome...

I take everybody's points that this isn't a simple issue. But turn it around: we produce Too. Much. Waste. We do not have the land available for landfills. Unless you're prepared to start campaigning enthusiastically for an incinerator to be sited at the end of your street, then you're being hypocritical if you don't at least try to reduce your waste. Introducing charges for waste removal is one way to force people to reduce their waste - yes, some bastards will fly-tip, but most will either pay up or find better ways to deal with their waste (or, ideally, produce less).

fircone, I'm not particularly bothered about councils one way or the other. I will admit to a kneejerk response whenever people complain about taxes. I think a lot of people give very little thought to the incredible range of services that our taxes buy, and how supremely lucky we are to live in a country where these things are provided with us barely having to give it a second thought.

Anyway, amida, one solution for you would be to get one of those big builder's bags (not a euphemism ), fill it gradually with grass cuttings, and take it to the tip when it's full - probably not more frequently than every few months, if your garden is small.

You can also compost leaves in those big builder's sacks - I've done it for a few years running and you get great leaf mould that your borders will thank you for.

andirobo have you seen this thread?

PW are you talking about those big canvas builders things that they have sand etc delivered it?

I'm not sure we'd be able to lift one if it was full of grass!

I still think that carrot rather than stick is the way forward, or possibly a combination of the two.

Simply charging for services will mean people don't pay and do something dodgy. A lot of people are very very tight...

hey are you saying i'm tight
probably am being
just fed up with continuous increases in costs and seemingly decrease in service.

then again i got into a good state school so thank my lucky stars. some of our neighbours were offered no school at all and are paying for private. now that is another thread.

btw dh said he is paying the £50 and if i am getting this bothered by it i have too much time on my hands and should drive to the dump. cheeky git.

policywonk - thanks for that - we have had no leaflets from local prospective MEP's but will be seeking out info!

No one gets a free recycling collection. The only difference is that some councils add it to the council tax and some charge separately.

Allegedly, the containers of recycling stuff going out to china etc would otherwise have been going back empty.