.
South Cambridgeshire District Council has a proposal out to reduce green bin collections to once a month over the winter period to save money. Click here for the full story in the Cambridge News
Let us know your views below
Proposed Changes to Bin Collection
That rather depends on their definition of winter. I am already starting to accumulate garden refuse and would be very strongly against any reduction in collection at present . If they mean , say , the months of November and December, I would think that would be practical and achieve nearly 10% saving
After asking people on the `HI PEOPLE’ social media in Histon & Impington, all those who have commented think it it is a good idea, provided the savings can be seen being used in other needed areas.
Having asked the question on `HI PEOPLE’, all those who commented think it would be a good idea and with the savings put to other public services.
I also think it would be a good idea for the Winter months.
I think this is an incredibly bad idea. My green bin is full every two weeks with both garden waste and ‘green’ kitchen waste. Even in the depths of winter the bin is about 3/4 full so four-weekly collections would definitely NOT work for me. Another consideration is the fact that kitchen waste would be in the bin for up to four weeks – will the Council pay to have them cleaned/deodorised as this will be a problem even in winter – particularly warm winters. This will be a problem even for those who do not generate garden waste, such as flat dwellers and those who have turned their gardens into car parks. After 4 weeks in a bin, kitchen waste will not be pleasant.
However, because so much is re-cycled in green and blue bins, my black bin could easily be emptied every four weeks, as it is always less than half full after two weeks.
Finally, if anyone believes that the savings will be passed on in the form of improved facilities or public services elsewhere, they are either incredibly naïve or have been smoking something; this is all about budget cuts not reallocation of funds.
The principle seems sound. I’d like to see some facts and figures though: Volume of green refuse historically collected by month; simple cost breakdown of green collection – separating fixed costs and the costs by weight. Or any other actual data that would let us see the savings and real impact for ourselves.
Even in the winter my green bin gets full each fortnight – pruning shrubs etc.
It would be difficult to manage with only one collection a month.
If South Cambs needs to make a £300,000 pa saving, this suggestion for contributing more than two-thirds of that sum has merit. But I wouldn’t want to see the green bin collection cease altogether. Looking at the arithmetic, this £200,000+ saving would save about £3 pa per household and maybe most households would willingly pay that much (adjusted for whatever council tax band they are in) for the service to be maintained as it is.
However, apparently South Cambs can’t do that without holding a referendum (according to Eric Pickles), because this would raise the proposed 2% rise in council tax up to 4.9%. How did I work that out? Well, South Cambs council tax requirement for 2013/14 was £6.93 million. Add 2% for 2014/15 gives you £7.07 million. Add £200,000 extra for bins gives you £7.27 million. And 7.27/6.93 is 1.049. We could have a referendum – reduced green bin collections in winter v 4.9% rise in South Cambs share of the council tax. I’ll vote for the reduced bins because I reckon not everyone could afford the higher increase.
Would prefer to have fortnightly collection the whole year. We appreciate the need for reduction of costs. However, the change considered would mean that residents would put more material in the black bins and consequently there would be an increase in Landfill Tax payable.
I agree with the principle of saving money if collections every 2 weeks really are not needed. But the gardening calendar is not the same as ‘winter month’s and temperatures are not the best indicator for deciding on any changes. We have help in February specifically to cut down shrubs and our green bin is always full. I hope the District Council will not go ahead as planned.
Most of the year my black bin is less than half full but my green and blue bins are always full. I do compost as well but, having had rats recently, do not compost any food waste. This will have to go in my black bin should the proposed change be implemented as food waste can not be left for a whole month – a far from ideal situation. It would be interesting to see the justification for this proposal. Also, this is about budget cuts – the ‘savings’ would not be used for other services. I would not support this proposal.
We have two green bins and it’s still not enough, particularly during Winter when we have masses of leaves and prunings. We have two massive compost bins and burn some prunings as well. We’d never cope with monthly collections.
On the other hand our black bin has next to nothing in it, we’d easily cope with monthly black bin collections all year round.
I agree with Inger and Alan Eade, this will encourage people to unnecessarily use the black bin. Surely people should be encouraged to recycle, it’s strange that a local council is actually discouraging recycling here. Our green bin is full every two weeks from garden waste and sawdust/hay from pets.
It’s a really bad idea to cut winter green bin collections – just at the time that garden plants are being cut down. My bin is used more over winter than summer. Cut the black bin collection ALL YEAR, if you’re recycling properly that doesn’t need a fortnightly collection.
What has become obvious from all the comments posted is that different people have different patterns of use for the various bins and that any change is going to affect some people adversely. If I understood one of the previous comments correctly, it appears, somewhat surprisingly, that black bin processing can benefit from the addition of a proportion of green bin contents whereas the reverse is not true. Under those circumstances, it is obvious that it has to be the green bin collection that is reduced and the organic waste that accumulates goes into the black bin- which if we are all recycling conscientiously as Alan instructs, will be relatively empty.
My personal view is that food waste should not be left for four weeks- dare one mention smell, health and safety, and rats- but the possibility of putting it into a black bin acceptably ( if counter-intuitively ) does remove the worst objections and leaves the current proposal as the least bad option.
We recycle food waste into the green bins (as well as the usual garden waste etc), and this gives some problems. You have to use paper ‘caddy’ liners, so in summer after two weeks of festering the bins stink and are (worst case) maggot infested. I’ve lived in other metropolitan districts and they use smaller food waste bins that are collected every week (and you can use ‘plastic’ bio degradeable liners to seal the waste as well (incidently, supplied by the council), and then garden waste every two weeks etc. This works well. In summer, now, I bag up food waste and put it in the black bin for 1 week then use the green bin for the second week. Not exactlly a great recycling policy but its that or smelly maggot infested nastiness (I’ve taken advice from environmental health and this was their ‘management’ suggestion. To move to a 4 weekly collection is just silly (in the context of food waste), but I can see the point re garden waste.