What can I do with my (large pile of) green waste?

[Frieda]

We have a lot of "green waste" from our garden to get rid of - far too much for the compost heap and, besides, it's a combination of those pesky perennial weeds that contaminate domestic compost (brambles, dandelions, etc) and big twiggy stuff - holly and evergreen boughs - that will take ages to rot down. I've rung the council and unfortunately their green waste disposal scheme doesn't extend to our village yet, so the alternatives seem to be:
Local tip - Five miles away and we'll need hundreds of car journeys, which sort of defeats the object of recycling
Bonfire - not very environmentally friendly, will annoy the neighbours, and the thought of DH in charge of a bonfire is just a little scary.
Hiring a skip from the local recycling firm - very expensive

Any more ideas?

A neighbour suggested spreading it around the local hedgerows - what do you think? Apart from spreading a bit more bramble and dandelion about (of which there's plenty in our local hedgerows - I don't really see the problem. But I could be missing something.

Any suggestions gratefully considered. TIA

Hi, Frieda! Haven't seen you for aaaages!

The perennial weeds should not be recycled - chop them up small and stick them in the dustbin.

For the woody stuff, could you buy a pack of green binliners, chop it up small, fill the bags and take a carload to the local tip each time you're going that way anyway?

Otherwise save it all up for bonfire night.

HTH

Hi Janh! I do pop on mn every so often (usually about this time of night when everyone's in bed) but am usually too brainboggled to post by then. Lovely to hear from you - DS still uses that Toy Story duvet cover (it was yours, wasn't it?) and your advice is always appreciated. I'll get chopping then It is a very big pile ? do you really think disappearing into the hedgerows with a big bundle of holly is a bad idea?

You can out anything on my local tip - perennial weeds and all. I think they treat the green waste in some way to kill all weeds. You can buy compost there too and it is great - no weeds at all grow from it!
I would either:
bag it and take it as JanH says to tip each time I go and accept it might take a few weeks
or
hire/ borrow a shredder which will reduce volume enormously and take it in one go to the tip
Problem is if it's mixed it won't necessarily dry out for the bonfire - might go wet and sludgy.

Well I just had a google on recycling evergreen branches - found this on Christmas trees from Iowa and this from the U of Illinois. They are keen on turning it into mulch but it should be chipped first (I did think if you just dumped branches under hedges they'd turn brown and be very sad-looking )

Failing an actual chipper, could the chopped-up-small bits be composted in plastic bags? Would that work?

(PS Yes the Toy Story duvet was ours - very glad to hear it's still useful!)

I was going to say: a shredder. Then maybe an accelerant of some sort and bag it up, to rot down in the bags for a year? I know you can do something like that with leaves.

ooh sometimes i wish we could answer with just the thread title question!!

Oooh, a shredder - that sounds fun! I wonder where I could get hold of one (will have a google immediately).

Thanks for those links, Janh. V useful - esp the bit about evergreen branches exploding in the fire - I knew it wouldn' be a good idea to let dh loose with the idea of a bonfire. Glad it suggested removing the decorations first, though - wouldn't have thought of that .

Feel free, southeastastra, feel free .

You can get it all composted by the local authority - they heat the compost to speed up the process and that is supposed to destroy the weeds, seeds and all. How you get it there though...we've always jammed it in the car boot. But we don't have that far to go.