THE new kerbside garden waste collection service launched by Boston Borough Council is exceeding all expectations, but its very success has brought with it its own teething problems.
More than 11,000 brown bins have now gone out to households, including some in Kirton and Wyberton, which have signed up and paid up to receive the fortnightly collections and up to 52 tonnes of garden waste has been collected in a single day.
But overloading of bins has become a slight issue. The bins are designed to cope with 80kgs of green waste and damage can occur if they are in excess of that weight when they are tipped by the collection lorry’s hydraulic lift.
Gardeners are asked not to include soil, knock it off the roots of weeds, plants and shrubs before they go in the brown bin and not to include lawn edgings. The same applies to hanging baskets, planters, tubs and window boxes – dispose of the dead plants, but don’t tip the peat into your brown bin.
Another issue has arisen because of changes to refuse collection rounds and timings to accommodate the new service.
Residents have been reporting their bin as having not been emptied because the crew has not called at a time they have become used to. Staff at the council have been handling a high volume of calls on this subject.
Householders should only assume their bin has been missed if it has not been emptied by 4.45pm.
Residents also need to be aware that different lorries collect different materials at different times – landfill, recycling and garden waste have to be kept separate. So, if one bin has been emptied at one point in the day but another hasn’t, it doesn’t mean it has been missed.
Since the garden waste collection service started on July 2 waste going to landfill, which used to include garden waste, has reduced by an average 191 tonnes a fortnight.
Diverting the garden waste away from expensive and environmentally unsound landfill is producing an average saving of £11,944 per fortnight.