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Judith Honey is presented with her brown wheeled-bin by executive member for environment Cllr Gary Cowan (right) and waste and recycling manager Peter Baveystock.
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1000th gardener signs up to new green waste collection

By Lucy Allen
March 21, 2012

A Shinfield woman has become the 1000th customer to get a brown bin in the council’s new garden waste collection scheme.

Retired insurance manager Judith Honey, 67, had her new 240-litre bin presented to her by Councillor Gary Cowan, executive member for environment.

Mrs Honey said she used the council’s former garden waste collection for many years. As a keen gardener, who grows some vegetables alongside flowers in her back garden, she says she and her husband find the garden waste scheme invaluable.

“I like the fact I will be able to store the new bin round the side of my house out of the way,” she said. I was very surprised to get a call from the council saying I was their 1000th customer for the new bins.

“I’ve never really had this VIP treatment before but it’s a nice surprise. I’m a fairly low key person.”

Wokingham borough residents can now sign up for the £60 annual kerbside garden waste collection scheme, which starts on April 2 and replaces the current free fortnightly collection.

Cllr Gary Cowan, executive member for environment, said: “I am really pleased that residents seem to be taking to the new scheme by their obvious recognition of the environmental benefits it will bring by reducing landfill, increasing composting and increase recycling and my thanks go to them all.”

However, Lib Dem councillor Prue Bray is worried that the take-up will not be enough and the council will be left out of pocket if the collection trucks have to prowl the streets looking for only the occasional brown bin. She said: “The council needs 12 per cent of households to take this up to make the business model work. That’s around 7,750 houses. So far only two to three per cent have signed up. What are the implications for the council if the take-up is too low?”

Alternatively, people can purchase 75-litre compostable sacks for £1 and these will be collected fortnightly.

To sign up for the garden waste scheme, call (0118) 909 9360, Monday to Friday, or email: wokingham.enquiries@veolia.co.uk

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Wouldn't it have been better just to extend the previous scheme to the 20% who didn't have it? Only WBC think to penalise the 80% in favour of 20% who may or may not want the new bins anyway!

Smiffy, Reading
26/03/2012 at 16:53

@ Cllr Baker - So by your own admission 80% were HAPPY (your CAPS) with the previous arrangement for green waste. That and the 19,000 wheelie bins that you have on your hands should give you an indication what people think. It's a stealth tax this 'green waste' charge that you have introduced and you should be ashamed of it not laud it around as something to be proud of. May is not far off, let's hope the residents of Wokingham Borough tell you though the ballot box what they think of you.

Colin Barbasiewicz
23/03/2012 at 23:32

Very nice of her to just throw out £60 without realizing that the scheme is a scam. Council now adds £60,000 to there goal . That should be just enough to pay for his yearly bonus. Well done

YoYo-Sindlesham, Sindlesham
22/03/2012 at 07:08

@right said fred - if you home compost, after 2-3 years grass has practically turned back into soil. Further, one green bag full of cut grass will turn into about a small carrier bag full of decomposed material. So however you get the green rubbish collected is up to you, so the council says, but home composting will reduce that cost. If you could organise a friend to help take it to the tip once a year, you'd probably only need one composter.

What Cllr Baker is saying is - Would you rather council tax went up by £60 (and you have no choice but to afford it), or you had the option to not pay it and find a cheaper way of doing it? The option to pay it out of the current budget is not available it would seem.

mavdo, Wokingham
21/03/2012 at 17:42

To be fair to mistwalker, I have a garden with a footprint smaller than my house, and even I home compost. There are A few things that don't home compost very well, including cuttings from woody bushes, and the leaves that fall from the tree that overhangs my garden in the autumn (just due to the sheer amount of them - you'd need a whole composter just for this).

One composter can cope with grass cuttings from about a 25sqm garden, general trimmings and weeds from plants around the edge, and kitchen waste for about 3-4 years. After that time, you can empty the bottom half and dig it in to your garden, and then carry on with the top half. If you have a large garden, you really should get a couple of them, or just set up a compost heap.

mavdo, Wokingham
21/03/2012 at 17:36

Mistwalker,if i had shrubs or borders i would gladly compost but my whole garden being nearly all lawn i have no use for the amount of compost my grass cuttings,hedge cuttings etc would produce.

right said fred
21/03/2012 at 17:29

@right said fred - If you have a large garden then why don't you home compost...? Bit of common sense, it's what we do in our large garden and can then use it on the plants when its broken down.

Mistwalker
21/03/2012 at 17:12

Cllr Baker,i am one of the people with a rather large garden.i have always managed with the green sacks that were provided.i am unable to afford the new charges and i do not drive as i can no longer afford this luxury.please can you tell me how i can now get rid of my grass cuttings,hedge cuttings and the leaves that fall in my garden from the council owned park to the rear and side of my property.

right said fred
21/03/2012 at 14:04

Thanks Mavdo.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
21/03/2012 at 14:00

@Damiano - if you put bio-degradeable rubbish into landfill, it does degrade, but (a) takes up space in the landfill site, (b) costs money in Euro taxes, and (c) degrades in a different way, and far more slowly, mainly due to the lack of oxygen available, and in doing so it produces far more methane, which is a very harmful greenhouse gas (far more so than CO2).

I'm not saying anything about this policy in this comment, just listing things that are bad about mixing biodegradable rubbish into main landfill rubbish. If you separate it, shred it up and lay it on top of landfill, it will degrade properly and provide a layer of self-made top soil. If you compost it, it practically disappears into useable plant food and top soil to replace that that disperses naturally with erosion that isn't taken from elsewhere in a potentially environmentally damaging way. Inside a landfill, it can do none of these and just takes up space.

mavdo, Wokingham
21/03/2012 at 13:48

Even if I wanted to part with £60 a year for one of these bins I'd have nowhere to put it - I live in a terraced house with very little front garden which is already taken up with a bin and black recycling boxes.

Whoever came up with this, along with the 1 1/2 flimsy bags a week which have to be left out the night before for the local wildlife to ransack, needs their head read.

blondie, Lower Earley
21/03/2012 at 13:33

Cllr Baker. Keep your eyes on Churchill Drive in Winnersh (behind Rainbow Park) once the new refuse / recycling regime is imposed. It's bad enough today for flytipping. Come April, it will be an utter disgrace.

Ivor Biggun, winnersh
21/03/2012 at 13:19

Could someone please explain to me what the "environmental benefits" are to this scheme? Never mind the environmental costs of the added petrol, manufacturing of plastic bins etc. that are involved, complicated stuff like that; but it seems to me that 'garden waste' is good old fashioned dirt, leaves and cuttings. So whether this sits in landfill, the back garden, or is taken away by a company paid to do so, it's not a problem, is it?? It's not the same as dumping plastic in a landfill, because garden waste will naturally bio-degrade (and, I imagine, encourage bacteria to breed that will improve the degradation rates of the surrounding rubbish). Am I wrong?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
21/03/2012 at 13:17

Cllr Baker, nice to hear from you again, but a shame you are utterly blind to the flaws in this policy. I would expect nothing less as a member of the party who came up with it.

Prior to this policy, there were plenty of people not using the service even within the 80% who were paying for it. What about people in flats? Were they included before? If not, then we don't NEED to expand the service. If they were, then they were also paying for this service when they had no need for it.

However, the point is that you have kept the council tax the same AND added this charge. So this is now an extra for those who want this service. I'm still paying the same as before, yet I now don't have the service.

What you have now done is instead of giving the service to 80% of residents, you've given 100% of residents the *option* to pay for it and are therefore only making this service available to the residents who can afford it and are withdrawing it from those who cannot. That's a very Conservative policy. Additionally you are charging residents with a 5 acre garden the same as those with a window box. I can afford it, but I won't pay it. £60 per year is £2.40 per collection, when I was only putting my little green back out about five times a year. I *might* pay £1 for the sacks, or I might just sweep up my leaves, walk around the corner, and put them into the woods. After all, the woods have plenty of leaves in them already.

Finally, why are we paying £60 when the residents of Bracknell are paying £30 and those in Reading even less? The policy is within the law, but is NOT in the best interests of the residents, and will simply reduce the waste that goes to composting. Common sense has been lost.

mavdo, Wokingham
21/03/2012 at 12:46

Ivor - the service was not included for the 20% of residents who did not have the green waste collection who were subsidising those who had! But I guess that is okay with you if you were one of the ones to get the service.