Cheshire East Council is urging residents to sign up to their Garden Waste Recycling Scheme which goes live for subscribers next month as the take up so far has been low.
If residents who would like the council to continue emptying their garden bin they need to sign up to the scheme by the end of December, so that their subscription bin sticker arrives in time for their first collection in the new year.
However, so far only 33,000 households have opt-in to the scheme which costs £56 per year. This represents just 22% of the 150,000 properties which are eligible for the garden bin collection service (due to constraints on house design and collection round limitations).
The Council has forecast that the scheme will generate £4.05m across two years, £0.9m in 2023/24 with the balance in 2024/25.
Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council's environment and communities committee, said: "We will soon be at that point where garden bin collections will pause for the Christmas and New Year period, with no garden waste collections from 18 December until 15 January.
"When collections do resume in January, our Garden Waste Recycling Scheme will be live and garden waste collections will become a paid-for optional service.
"So far, more than 33,000 households have signed up to the scheme and for those residents, we will continue to take their garden waste away as normal on their usual collection day.
"Residents can sign up to the annual scheme at any point in the year but will pay the same fee whether they sign up at the beginning of the year, part way through the year or only need a few collections.
"That's why I encourage residents who'd like to continue having their garden bin emptied to subscribe as soon as possible so that their subscription sticker can be posted out to them in time for the service going live."
By subscribing, residents may choose to continue using their garden bin to recycle food waste.
Subscriptions cost £56 per garden bin, per year, with a 25% reduction in the fee available for those receiving qualifying benefits.
Once subscribed, residents will be sent a welcome pack containing their subscription sticker, which will have their address and unique subscription number on it.
Residents are urged to attach the sticker to the back of their garden bin (handle side) as soon as they receive it as garden bins without a valid sticker displaying will not be emptied.
Cllr Warren added: "Once again, I'd like to thank residents who have already subscribed to the scheme.
"Like many local authorities, Cheshire East Council is facing an extremely challenging financial environment and the introduction of our Garden Waste Recycling Scheme is a significant element in helping us to work towards presenting a balanced budget by the end of March 2024."
The quickest way to sign up is by visiting: cheshireeast.gov.uk/gardenbin and clicking the subscribe button.
Residents not able to sign up online can contact the council on 0300 123 5011.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
My food waste will revertto the black bin and I’m lucky enough to be able to take my garden waste to the “tip” myself in future.
On what take-up figure or percentage of households was this based on to break even?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by " It should be scrapped immediately".
Is this the £56 charge or the service in its entirety?
I meant scrap the new charging scheme which will create a lot of problems for residents and we now learn won't even raise significant funds for the council. The green bin service should be provided out of existing council taxes not added on as a supplementary charge for those able or willing to pay
7.2.3 If the Council :
7.2.3.1 fails to rectify a reported missed collection of garden waste on 3 consecutive nominated collection days. The Customer must report a missed bin collection within 2 days after their scheduled day of collection either using their bins account or online at www. cheshireeast.gov.uk/gardenbin or by contacting the Customer Services Team on 0300 123 5011
7.2.3.2 (Not including clause 1.6), suspends the service collection of garden waste for 3 or more consecutive nominated collection days.
If the charge is scrapped then the service will also be scrapped. This is because the collection of "green and food waste" is NOT A STATUTORY SERVICE which the council must provide by law.
Why is it that the council now expects us to pay for collection of the raw materials it needs to run this revenue positive operation?
Here's an idea ...how about the council composting business purchases those raw materials from us instead?
I know that bins aren't the same as breakfasts; and that no-one is obliged to buy a full english. But CEC is obliged to collect black and grey bins; they offered green bin collection as a freebie. Now - for whatever reason - they can't afford to, so have given us the option of paying for the service or not.
It gets even better. With the drive to reduce non-recyclable waste going to landfill, Councils across the UK are trading their black bin waste for "Waste to Energy" incineration and huge volumes of it are shipped to Europe to feed incinerators which generate energy. The UK is still trying to catch up and has relatively few clean-burn incinerators.
But in order for the feed to be viable, it has to be as dry as possible and so black bin waste with a high organic (wet) content will attract a much lower price or a much higher processing cost.
According to the Cheshire East Council website, it sends less than 5% of its black bin waste to landfill. The remaining 95+% goes to "Waste to Energy" incineration.
Why are you telling me something I already know?
Please re-read what I posted above to see the potential problem associated with removal/privatisation of the green bin service.
If only you’d spend more time (as I do) in meetings concerned with logistics, recycling and trade, you’d perhaps have a better understanding of why there’s so much derision of public sector wannabes complaining that they’re not getting enough private sector dollar!
You seen to assume that I put both garden & food waste in the green bin. I don't. I use the green bin purely as a weatherproof storage space.
As I do not have a lawn I do not generate green garden waste. That's why I've not signed up for the new service. And I also don't put food waste in either my green or black bin either. It all now goes into the combined sewer via my insinkerator.
If you think you can make a profit from a commercial green bin collection that is free at the point of collection, then by all means go ahead and set one up.
In what way?
I'm aware of this, but this week I found people in my immediate neighbourhood who weren't.
There is nothing on my green bin (water butt to be) saying that it won't be collected in future.
Does CEC rely on the Internet and word of mouth to get its messages out these days?
It will be then up to you to sift out the green waste from the black bin before they will empty it again.
Yuk.
With the exception of:
If you do not have a subscription or do not have a garden bin, you can put food waste in your black bin.
Cheshire East Council reduce waste sites.. and increasing £56 to £59 for green bin collection..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl4ep230l84o
I think its time some jobs and personnel got wasted first ... starting with Sam Corcoran