More than 5,000 households in the Babergh district have been busy helping the Council divert around 2,200 tonnes of garden waste away from landfill sites in the last 12 months.
By the year 2015 the landfill site at Great Blakenham – where all of our black bin waste is currently buried in a huge hole in the ground – will be filled.
The brown bin scheme, which has been running for three years, means garden waste that was being sent to landfill is now being composted, where possible – making it an additional boon to the council’s recycling aims.
The current scheme finishes at the end of May and now is the time for new and existing customers to sign up for the next year.
Existing householders who are in the scheme pay £30 per brown bin to re-subscribe to the service, which is then collected every fortnight. New subscribers pay £40, which includes the cost of delivering the bin. Householders in receipt of qualifying benefit will get a reduction.
Sarah Russell, Technical Assistant (Waste) at Babergh, said: “The scheme has been a real success and we are really pleased with the number of households in the district who are helping the Council to become top in the recycling stakes.”
The following can be put in a brown bin - grass cuttings, leaves and roots, weeds and bedding plants, dead flowers, hedge trimmings and softwood clippings. And, the following can’t - rocks and masonry, metal, compost/soil, thick branches or tree stumps, cooked meats, vegetables and fish, plastic bags and flower pots or plastics, cardboard and cans.
Payment for the bin must be received by May 12 in order for updates to the service, which starts on June 6 for the following year, to be made.
Anyone interested in signing up for a brown bin can get in touch in a variety of ways – in person or by writing to the council offices in Hadleigh or by calling the refuse helpline on 0800 018 5989.
Existing customers can re-subscribe using their unique customer number and following the links on the Council’s website, to the Brown Bin page or by using the automated telephone system on (01473) 829024.
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