Cheshire East Council has decided to introduce a charge for its green waste collection scheme. If you want to continue to have your green/brown bins collected from January next year it will cost £56 for an annual subscription. Further details are in the message from Cheshire East Council here.
On 27 July, Cheshire East Council’s environment and communities committee approved the implementation details of a green waste subscription service, which is one of the initiatives included in the council’s adopted medium-term financial strategy 2023-27.
Residents will be able to sign up to the council’s green waste collection scheme in early October 2023, and the paid for collections will then commence from 15 January 2024 (dependent on their scheduled collection date).
Until January, residents should continue to dispose of their waste in the normal way. Collections will continue as normal.
By opting-in to the green waste recycling scheme, residents can continue using their garden bin to recycle their green waste and will pay an annual subscription fee of £56 for it to be collected.
If residents choose to subscribe, they will continue to receive green waste collections on their usual scheduled collection day, which takes place fortnightly.
The council’s waste strategy encourages residents to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste as much as they possibly can, so that less waste needs to be disposed of.
This includes encouraging people to try home composting and to minimise food waste though the ‘love food hate waste’ programme.
More information about home composting Home composting (cheshireeast.gov.uk) and food waste reduction Reducing household waste (cheshireeast.gov.uk) is available on our website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where residents should put their garden waste if they don’t subscribe
We encourage residents to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste as much as they possibly can, and this includes encouraging people to try home composting.
Home composting is an excellent and environmentally-friendly way of transforming garden waste, as well as fruit and vegetable peelings, into a valuable and nutrient rich food for people’s gardens.
If home composting isn’t an option, it remains free for residents to dispose of garden waste at our household waste recycling centres.
Garden waste should never be placed in the black or silver bins. Black or silver bins found to contain garden waste will not be emptied.
What to do with their garden bin if they don’t subscribe
Not subscribing means their garden bin(s) will not be emptied from January 2024.
They should leave their garden bin at their property as it is assigned to the property and not a person.
Residents can subscribe to the garden waste recycling scheme at any time throughout the year.
Subscription stickers for bins
Once a resident subscribes, a welcome pack will be sent out to them, and this will include a specialist sticker which needs to be attached to their garden bin so that it can be easily seen by our collection crews.
All stickers are designed to fray and tear when removed from the bins, this prevents them being reused by other residents. Stickers will also have their address/unique reference number of them which allows the waste teams to check if the bin is at the relevant location.
We will post a collection sticker each year to subscribers.
Sharing a subscription with someone else
If one bin can meet the needs of a resident and their neighbour, they are able to share a garden bin. The charge applies per bin, so if they wish to share then one of them will need to be the named subscriber and pay the fee.
Communal properties wishing to subscribe to the service must register through their housing association/letting agent or formal residents’ group.
Fees if a resident has or needs more than one garden bin
Residents can pay to have an additional garden waste bin collected on the same day as their first garden bin. This is an annual fee, and they can order up to five additional garden bins per property.
For each garden bin they would like us to empty, they will also need a separate subscription to the garden waste recycling scheme.
Subscription cost if the resident receives certain benefits
For residents who receive qualifying benefits, a 25% reduction in the fee will be applicable, therefore reducing the usual £56 charge to £42 for the year.