Garden waste collections started this Tuesday in the Stroud district as part of improvements being made to waste and recycling services.
The optional, paid for service, which will allow residents to have their garden waste recycled, began in the early hours of the morning.
Councillor Simon Pickering, chairman of Stroud District Council’s Environment Committee, said:
“Close to 2,000 residents have received their new brown wheelie-bin and are now able to fill it with garden waste that will be collected fortnightly between February and November and be sent for composting. To join the scheme there is an initial, one-off £20 charge for the wheelie-bin and an annual subscription fee of £36 which equates to a charge of £1.64 per collection. For this you will receive a brown wheelie-bin for grass clippings, twigs, leaves, bark, hedge cuttings, flowers, plants, weeds, fallen fruit and small branches.”
The new scheme sees the end of the previous system, where paid for garden waste bags were used to collect garden waste and then sent to landfill.
Garden waste collections are available to the majority of households in the district; however those which currently use a green bag rather than a wheelie-bin for their recycling should contact the council first.
Councillor Pickering added:
“We are already lucky enough to have a large number of residents who are dedicated to home or community composting, but this collection service will be a welcome option for many keen gardeners. Now that the service has started and become more visible, we expect more people to sign up. Households which generate a large amount of garden waste can have more than one bin and it’s also perfectly fine for neighbours to club together and share their garden waste bin.”
Residents can sign up to the service online at www.stroud.gov.uk/gardenwaste or by calling the council on 01453 754424.