The residents of Kirklees are not happy. Their council is now going to charge for the collection of garden waste as part of a major cost cutting initiative. Householders will pay £1 for a bag and will have to buy at least 5 bags at once.
Household waste sites will still take the waste but in my view this is still not the correct solution.
Noreen Logan of the Huddersfield and District Pensioners' Organisation calls this "ludicrous". She states that this will hit the disabled and the elderly.
Aside from any obvious arguments along the lines of people not being so disabled that they can still do the gardening but when it comes to taking the waste to the household waste site they are incapacitated, having garden waste collected is ludicrous full stop.
Let's look at what is needed for people to have their garden waste collected.
1) A separate wheeled bin
2) Bin lorries to collect the garden waste
3) An industrial composting facility
4) Somewhere for the used compost to go.
The alternative is to compost at home.
1) Compost bins cost less than £20 via the council
2) The material does not need to be collected saving CO2 emissions, lorries and extra bins
3) There is no need to an industrial composting facility with the associated energy consumption and CO2 emissions, space needed and odour problems to those nearby
4) The compost is made at home and dug in at home. This completes the carbon cycle and can actually reduce CO2 rather than the collection method which only increases it.
Anyone serious about gardening should be composting at home - end of story. Kirklees have got it right. There is a clear financial incentive for home composting and their plans will save £250,000. Other councils are following suit and good for them.
So, Ms Logan, it is you who are ludicrous. Stop this crusade against what is best for the environment and get composting!
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