Garden waste

This year’s garden waste service will stop on December 17 and Hammersmith & Fulham Council is looking at several options for the scheme, ready for next year.

We want to hear your views on how you think the garden waste service could be improved or changed – this is your chance to help shape the future of the scheme.

Here is some information you might find useful about this year’s garden waste service:

• Collection of garden waste costs over £35 per household per year and the council buys the composting bags at 30 pence each.
• The charge for registration in 2008/9 was £7.25 which included 50 biodegradable sacks (two rolls of 25), working out at just over 14p per sack.
• The current price charged is heavily subsidised.
• Over 4,000 households registered this year, which works out at around five per cent of households in the borough. This means that 95% of residents in H&F are subsidising the 5% who use the service.
• Less than 1% of the total borough waste is collected as garden waste from households. This compares to around 26% of waste collected as ‘dry’ recyclables in orange Smart sacks.
• The scheme is not environmentally friendly, with collection trucks covering on average 220 miles every week to visit registered households. The garden waste is then transported further through heavy London traffic to the composting site in Essex.

Home composting

Our proposal is to encourage residents to compost their garden waste at home. H&F Council is proposing to provide a number of free or subsidised 220 litre composting bins worth £40. » Order here. These bins provide quality compost for your garden and allow you to compost kitchen waste such as vegetable and fruit peelings, and egg shells helping reduce what you send to landfill.

The options

We would like to know which of the following options you would prefer for excess garden waste:

1) Stop collecting garden waste. This would mean no additional cost to you or other residents, as the waste would be collected as part of ordinary landfill in black bags.

2) Have a booked service similar to the current bulky household goods service. This would cost £10 per collection for up to 10 biodegradable bags, or £15 for up to 20 bags. (See option 3 for bag purchase).

3) Continue the current registration scheme with a reduced subsidy. This would mean a registration charge of £20 per household in 2009. There would also be a charge for bags – £3 for ten biodegradable sacks and £3 for postage per order. You can avoid paying the postage cost by purchasing sacks at libraries. Sacks would also be available to buy at Hammersmith and Fulham town halls. If this were to be the preferred option, the collection would commence again the week starting March 30 2009 and take place on the same day as your normal weekly collection.

The closing date for replies is December 22.

» Take part in the consultation now

For more information:
020 8753 1100
cleaner.greener@lbhf.gov.uk.